Following a special meeting of Fort Frances Town Council, the town passed a resolution to permanently adopt central daylight time (CDT) if the measure gains approval, in line with the province of Manitoba.
A special meeting of council was called to examine the proposed resolution, which reads as follows:
“That council support the Town of Fort Frances moving to observe daylight saving time permanently, should the majority of Northwestern Ontario municipalities and First Nation communities agree to do the same; and that in that circumstance, a by-law adopting daylight saving time permanently and repealing By-law 1926 and its amendments be brought forward at a subsequent meeting of council.”
The meeting came a week after the town posted a survey asking residents across northwestern Ontario what their preference would be after Manitoba chose to follow Alberta and British Columbia in adopting permanent daylight saving time (DST).
The town clerk’s office prepared a report which included the results of the survey up to that time.
A total of 1,273 respondents to the survey identified as residents of Fort Frances, and 1,135 or 89 per cent, said they would prefer to observe DST permanently. Eighty-eight, or seven per cent, would prefer to observe standard time permanently, while 50 respondents, or four per cent, would prefer to continue observing both time changes.
Based on this information, Town Council had a discussion which was largely in favour of permanent DST, though some concerns were expressed around the safety of students who will be going to school in the dark and some who were concerned about how it might confuse the neighbours to the south in International Falls.
Legislation is currently working its way through the United States Congress around a transition to permanent DST, but it has currently stalled and will not be passed before Nov. 1, 2026. Many states have passed their own legislation, but those cannot come into effect unless federal legislation passes.
Following the discussion, none of the council members in attendance were opposed to the resolution, and it passed.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Andrew Hallikas brought the council’s opinion to a second meeting of northwestern Ontario community leaders as organized by Kenora-Rainy River MPP Greg Rickford.
Reached after the meeting, Mayor Andrew Hallikas said that he was surprised by how a large group of people and communities could come to such a clear consensus.
“Basically, it was the same group of people, but with the addition of some Métis leaders and some First Nations people, and we had another MPP there, Sol Mamakwa (MPP for Kiiwetinoong),” Hallikas said.
“The purpose of the meeting, of course, was to report on consultations that we had each done in our home communities and see if there was a consensus on what to do about the time. And it was pretty amazing. I’ve never seen an issue where so many people felt strongly exactly the same way,” Hallikas said.
“Usually there’s much more differentiation. It turns out thatthe consensus was unanimous. All of the communities represented there, First Nations, Métis, you know, many of the communities in Dryden and Rainy River District, all felt strongly by a very, very large percentage that we should join Manitoba in being on daylight saving Time permanently.”
Many of the other communities did their own surveys similar to the one created by the clerk’s office in Fort Frances, but many residents from across the region responded to the Fort Frances survey. A total of 603 respondents identified as residents of Dryden, and 695 identified as residents of Kenora, among many other communities across northwestern Ontario, with the pro-DST trend holding true. The Fort Frances clerks also forwarded the gathered information to the relevant communities.
Hallikas also noted that many of the communities did do their own similar surveys.
“When we got into actual specifics, because a lot of folks did like we did and did surveys. There were no surveys that were under 90 per cent in favour of doing this,” he said. “The number one thing, then, that came out of the meeting was that there was a consensus to do this.”
Halikas said that the consensus would be used to show the provincial government that there is an appetite for the change. Should the formal process to ratify the switch proceed, there is a real possibility it could be processed by the government in time to take effect by the end of October.
Hallikas said that Rickford explained the process.
“Turns out that it’s the attorney general who’s responsible. There’s an act called the Time Act,” Hallikas said. “The message he was given by the attorney general and the premier’s office was that as long as there’s a clear, unanimous opinion that they’re fine with it, and that they would support it, and that they would enact the necessary legislation in due course.”
A formalized and official documentation of the will of the community is key to the process going forward, Hallikas said. With the adoption of the resolution last Friday, the Town of Fort Frances has completed that step; the government is now looking for similar formal resolutions from other communities throughout the region.
“Minister Rickford wants it to his office by mid-October. Again, judging from the way the meeting went, it should be unanimous, and if he gets all the documentation from everyone represented there, and it turns out to be unanimous, then he’s going to forward that to the attorney general, and then we’ll go from there,” Hallikas said.
“The anticipated outcome is that it would go into effect this year, which means that we wouldn’t change our time on Nov. 1, 2026.”
While legislation would need to be passed at Queen’s Park, Hallikas said his understanding is that the time change would be processed once the provincial legislature resumes sitting on Oct. 27.
“According to Minister Rickford, the province would support our move, and the words he used, ‘Then we would enact any necessary legislation in due time,’ I guess I interpret that to mean ‘Yeah, go ahead with it, and we’ll pass whatever needs to be passed.’”
Hallikas said that he received some playful ribbing from the representative from Atikokan, which hasn’t changed times in decades.
“It was kind of an off-the-cuff thing: ‘What took you guys so long to realize the right way to do things?’” Hallikas said.
The mayor also noted that many communities in the Rainy River District have said they would follow along with Fort Frances.
“Many of them were on the call, and today there were even a couple of ones that weren’t last time; they’re all in agreement,” Hallikas said. “A lot of them were saying either ‘We’re just going to go along with what the rest of the district does,’ or ‘We’re going to go along with what Fort Frances does.’”
