Daylight saving time: Here's when BC gains an extra hour of sleep

Love it or hate it, daylight saving time is coming to an end in British Columbia this upcoming weekend, which means it’s nearly time to ‘fall back’ an hour. To say that many of us dread early sunsets and less sunlight is an understatement, but at least it means we get an extra hour of sleep, right?!

Why do we have Daylight Saving Time in Canada?

According to Time and Date, the practice of ‘springing forward’ and ‘falling back’ in Canada dates back to 1908, when it was first used in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The Old Farmer’s Almanac says that the idea behind it is to allow us to use natural daylight better.

“Moving the clocks forward one hour in the spring grants us more daylight during summer evenings, while moving clocks back one hour in the fall grants us more daylight during winter mornings.”

In 1918, the practice was adopted by the federal government as a way to increase production during the First World War, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia. While the use of daylight saving time lapsed between the First World War and the Second World War, it was adopted by most countries following wartime – though it wasn’t regulated in Canada until 1987.

Since then, the official time zones and DST have been regulated by the provincial, territorial, and municipal governments, with the exception of Saskatchewan and Yukon.

Move to permanent daylight saving time

More than a fair amount of British Columbians are in favour of removing the practice altogether.

After a record number of residents responded in favour of moving to permanent daylight saving time in 2019, BC made strides to scrap the outdated practice, which will go into effect once the U.S. states of California, Washington, and Oregon are on board.

In March of this year, Oregon came close to passing a bill that would make DST permanent, but only if California and Washington made the same change within the next decade. While it narrowly passed in the Oregon Senate, it ultimately failed to become law – as did the Sunshine Protection Act of 2023.

So until one of the states or BC make the first move, progress may be slow. However, there are a handful of areas in BC that have already done away with setting their clocks back. This includes the communities of Chetwynd, Creston, Dawson Creek, Fort Nelson, and Fort St. John.

When will British Columbians ‘fall back’ in 2024?

Daylight saving will end this Sunday, November 3rd at 2 am, which means we’ll gain an hour of sleep and lose an hour of daylight when we turn our clocks back.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac recommends setting your clocks back by one hour on Saturday night so that sunrise occurs one hour earlier starting Sunday, November 3rd.

Sunrise and sunset times

Starting November 3rd, the sun will rise at 7:04 am and set at 4:46 pm, according to current sunset and sunrise times.

As time progresses, sunrise times will get incrementally later and sunset times will get earlier, until the Winter Solstice on Saturday, December 21st – AKA the shortest day of the year.

So there you have it, BC. Here’s to hoping this is the last time we have to ‘fall back!’