Weekend time change for most Canadians

On the night of November 2 to 3, 2024, most Canadians will have to set their watches back one hour to switch to standard time. In Quebec, this time change could well be the last.

This weekend, it will be possible to catch up on some sleep with the time change, which will take place precisely on Sunday at 2 a.m.: at 2 a.m., it will therefore be 1 a.m.

Only Saskatchewan and Yukon – which respectively abolished this measure in 1966 and 2020 – as well as parts of British Columbia will not do so.

A holdover from the First World War, the time change allows Canadian provinces and territories to maximize daylight, increase production and save on energy costs.

This ritual, which returns each year on the first Sunday in November and the second Sunday in March, has however been debated for decades in different provinces.

This year, the Legault government announced that it was looking into the possibility of abolishing this practice on its territory for the first time.

Soon the end of the measure in Quebec?

The time has come to think about the possibility of abolishing the time change and keeping one and the same time all year rounddeclared Quebec Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, during a press briefing on October 22.

The minister notably announced the launch of a public consultation on this subject. This takes place online on the Quebec government website, from October 22 until October 1^is December.

This is a questionnaire […] which was developed so that all interested people can participate in this collective reflectionwe explain on the government website.

In suspense

It is not only in Quebec where we are thinking of abolishing this tradition. Ontario is also considering the issue.

In October 2020, provincial MP Jeremy Roberts, who represents the riding of Ottawa West-Nepean, had already tabled a bill to this effect for Ontario.

However, the province wanted its two largest neighbors, Quebec and New York State, to be on board before making this change.

Similar steps are being taken in British Columbia, as well as the states of Washington, Oregon and California, which are considering permanently switching to daylight saving time.

On the Alberta side, a referendum to abolish the time change took place in 2021. Albertans, however, narrowly rejected the move to permanent summer time, deciding to keep the measure.

Harmful to healthsay experts

According to studies carried out around the world since the 2000s, there is a link between the time change and an increase in road accidents, a drop in employee productivity or even increased risks of depression and heart attacks. .

What these experts point out is the disruption of the biological clock in humans. They point out in particular that the 24-hour cycle per day is coded in our DNA and that it is fundamental for our health.

It is obvious that we must stop changing the time twice a year, because these changes have major impactsdeclared the director of the Sleep Research Laboratory at the University of Montreal, Dr. Roger Godbout, during an interview granted on October 24 for the show Fin PM.

Sleep, our biological rhythms are controlled by a clock which is extremely fragile and as soon as we disrupt it a little, there are enormous consequences in different areas which appear in the field of physical health, mental health, cognitive skills, motor skillsexplained Dr. Godbout.

According to him, Eastern Standard Time should be chosen if the government were to abolish the time change.

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Same story for the professor of the Department of Psychology at the University of Ottawa, Joseph de Koninck, who welcomes the initiatives of the various Canadian governments to put an end to the time change.

The ideal would be the standard time, with which humans evolved, that is to say when the sun is immediately above us, with the maximum illumination at noon.