Alberta’s premier is reportedly ready to move the province to year-round daylight saving time, a move the Northwest Territories would be likely to follow.
The NWT government’s position on the issue of twice-yearly time change has been that the territory can’t drop out of sync with nearby provinces.
In a 2021 vote, Albertans elected by a narrow margin to keep daylight saving as-is, still changing the clocks twice a year.
“The thing that needs to happen is Alberta needs to get on board,” Premier RJ Simpson said in 2024 when asked if the NWT would join the Yukon in adopting one time all year.
The Calgary Herald on Monday reported Premier Danielle Smith now intends to move Alberta to daylight saving time all year.
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Come the fall, the province will not “fall back” as it usually does, the newspaper reported. “The time we are in right now is the time it will be,” Smith was quoted as saying.
That decision has not been finalized in legislation but is not expected to face meaningful opposition.
The Yukon moved to daylight saving time on a permanent basis in 2020. British Columbia did so in March this year.
From 2022: Remembering the start of daylight saving in the NWT
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In 2022, 87 percent of the 3,500 responses to a GNWT survey were in favour of scrapping twice-a-year time changes.
However, at the time there was less agreement over which way to do it. The territory could permanently adopt either daylight saving time or standard (winter) time.
Just over half of the people in favour of scrapping the time change wanted to go with daylight saving time permanently. The rest wanted standard time.
The Yukon, BC and Alberta having all moved to permanent daylight saving, that seems like the most likely option for the NWT to pursue.
The territorial government has been approached for comment.
