On Sept. 17 the Province of Manitoba announced that it would be permanently adhering to Daylight Saving Time, prompting Kenora-Rainy River MPP Greg Rickford to gather municipal and First Nations leaders across the region for a meeting.
In a statement issued across his social media pages, Rickford said he understands that this raises questions across his riding and others in the region who are close to the Manitoba border.
“As we have learned today, Manitoba will move to permanent daylight saving time beginning November 1st. I understand residents have questions about how this change will impact businesses, services and cross-border operations,” Rickford wrote. “In response, I have reached out to mayors and First Nations leadership throughout the riding to convene a meeting tomorrow. We need to hear directly from our local leaders to understand how this change will impact services across our community. I look forward to listening, identifying opportunities and working together to ensure the voices of Northwestern Ontario are heard and supported through this transition.”
On Friday, the Town of Fort Frances posted a link to a survey about the time change which is being circulated by other municipalities across the region to understand what the preference is for the region’s residents.
In an interview Monday morning, Mayor Andrew Hallikas said he understands people not liking the bi-annual time changes.
“There’s been a lot of rumblings over the years about I guess how troublesome it is to be changing back and forth and, and quite frankly, there’s some research that indicates it’s fairly unhealthy as well. So we thought we should look at this and see what the consensus was,” Halikas said. “So Minister Rickford called a meeting of leaders from the Kenora District and the Rainy River District. Kenora, was represented, Red Lake, Dryden, Ignace, Emo, Rainy River, us (Fort Frances), other municipalities, First Nations, Metis, and the overwhelming consensus that came out of that meeting was that it seemed the best way for our two districts would be to go with Manitoba.”
In recent years, a handful of Canadian provinces have opted to adopt permanent Daylight Time. As of this November, neither British Columbia, nor Alberta will be ‘falling back,’ staying primarily on Pacific Daylight Time and Mountain Daylight Time respectively. Alberta has also re-christened the time zone as ‘Alberta Time,’ despite the fact that Saskatchewan has been using that time formula for years. Some jurisdictions in northeastern B.C. have stayed on Mountain Standard Time permanently which means that they will now match the rest of the province. Other jurisdictions in southeastern B.C. have switched between MST and MDT in line with Alberta; those regions will remain on ‘Alberta Time.’
There has been some controversy over the choice of year-round Daylight Time, especially in the north where the winter days are short to begin with.
In a 2022 article from Ontario Tech University, sleep scientist Efrosini Papaconstantinou noted that standard time aligns more closely with the sun and the body’s clock.
“Switching twice a year is disruptive both socially and biologically,” the professor said. “The sleep experts are adamant that adopting permanent standard time is the healthier choice because it is better aligned with the progression of the sun, and therefore with our body’s internal clock. But individuals in the retail sector are pressing for permanent daylight saving because the more daylight in the evening, in theory, the more likely people will be out shopping and spending money.”
In a position statement, the Canadian Sleep Society notes that many other similar organizations note that the bi-annual time change between Standard Time (ST) daylight saving time (DST) runs contrary to the body’s natural rhythms. And in a survey of sleep research the evidence was conclusive.
“The findings concur with those of other National and International associations with respect to the benefits of ST relative to DST. Specifically, maintaining optimal sleep and optimal alignment of the human circadian clock with daytime activities is achieved with ST. Indeed, not only does DST induce sleep deprivation at its inception in the spring but it enforces later darkness during the summer, favoring delayed bedtime, social jetlag and more sleep loss. In the fall and winter seasons, the northern position of Canada leads to a significant loss of light exposure during daytime activities, culminating at levels below 8.5 hours,” the statement says. “Under the current ST, the sun would rise in most major Canadian cities at around 7:45 a.m. and set at around 16:15 (4:15 p.m.). If DST would be implemented, the sun would rise at 8:45 a.m. and set at 17:15 (5:15 p.m.). This is one hour later in the morning compared to ST. Thus, most major Canadian cities, and particularly those situated above latitude 50 with narrower sunlight windows, would experience sunrises well after 8am and sometimes after 9 a.m. (Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton). Canadian children, students and workers would have to wake up in the dark and get to school /work without proper daylight exposure. This challenges the key role of morning light for circadian alignment and sleep deficits.”
The time change will also put the rest of northwestern Ontario on the same time as Thunder Bay and eastern Ontario for half the year.
The province of Ontario passed a bill in 2020 that would allow the government to abolish Daylight Savings Time if the province of Quebec and the state of New York choose to do so.
On Monday, Hallikas said that he was calling an emergency meeting of Town Council to discuss the issue and get the ball rolling on making a change for next week’s regular Council meeting.
Hallikas also noted that while it might cause some confusion with the nearby border with the U.S.A there is a bill in play there that could also see the states abandon DST as well, but Canada can’t be beholden to our neighbours either.
“There is potential legislation in the states right now to change their time zones as well. But I mean, we can’t go by what the United States does. We have to do what’s right for us,” Hallikas said. “I’ve called a special meeting on Friday. That’s not about passing a bylaw at all. It’s just to get input on where council sits on this issue, so I can feed it into the meeting.”
The Town of Fort Frances will give notice via its website and social media channels if a special meeting of council is called.
A survey on residents’ opinions is available at www.surveymonkey.com/r/BQM83Q9.
