Albertans vote to continue clock changes

Albertans have narrowly rejected staying on daylight savings time year-round.

But issues surrounding how the referendum was carried out will likely see the question come up again, said the head of the province’s rural municipality association and an expert on time changes.

One of the biggest issues with the referendum is it asked the wrong question, said Michael Antle, circadian rhythms specialist at the University of Calgary.

“The healthy choice that’s best for society and for the farmers wasn’t on the ballot,” said Antle, who is also vice-president of the Canadian Society for Chronobiology.

That would have been remaining on mountain standard time year-round rather than daylight time, he said.

It’s a sentiment shared by Paul McLauchlin, president of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta.

“The question should have been standard (time). I think it is kind of regrettable we didn’t have a fulsome debate on it,” he said.

About one in six of the province’s nearly 300 municipalities voted to continue to change the clocks every spring and fall. Those communities included the province’s two largest cities, towns and counties surrounding them as well as those in or near the Rocky Mountains.

That was enough to keep the status quo by a 50.2 to 49.8 per cent margin.

The vast majority of rural municipalities and small to medium-sized cities voted to no longer change the clocks.

Optimally, noon would fall at the point in which the sun is at its highest, said Antle.

If year-round daylight time was adopted, Calgary would see solar noon occur as late as 1:45 in the winter compared to about an hour earlier if permanent standard time was adopted, he added.

“That’s a big problem for Alberta and that’s why daylight savings time was the wrong choice,” said Antle.

McLauchlin said there wasn’t enough discussion of the issue leading up to the decision to hold a referendum and even less after it was called.

“There is huge considerations for trade that never came up as it relates to air travel and energy use. None of that became part of the public dialogue,” said McLauchlin.

Nor was there enough consideration as to how time changes would affect the agricultural communities, he said.

“It was one of those referendums that I’m not quite sure of the results because I’m not quite sure people understood what the question was,” said McLauchlin.

A number of rural municipalities also didn’t have polling stations or low turnout due to the number of acclamations, he added.

“This is the first time I saw a referendum in my lifetime voting that really no one talked about,” said McLauchlin.

Antle said for those working small-scale agricultural operations, time changes won’t likely make a huge impact either way as their clock is tied to the work.

“The problem is farmers don’t live in isolation. They still have to interact with businesses. They need to get fuel for machinery. They need to get parts if something breaks down. They have to take their grain to market,” said Antle. “All of those businesses run on the social clock that the rest of the province is using.”

Anecdotally, Antle heard those in the agricultural sector would have preferred remaining on standard time and, from a wellness point of view, it would be better.

“So standard time – all the evidence suggests we’ll be healthier as a society for it,” he said. “We know there is harm when we change our clocks. It puts our body clock out of sync with our social clock.”

Legislation is pending across many states in the western United States and British Columbia that would fix their time zones which, if passed, could also pose issues in Alberta, said Antle.

“We’re going to have to bring it up again,” he said of Alberta’s time change. “And it is kind of unfortunate we didn’t get all the options.”

McLauchlin agreed, adding changes across the western half of the continent will force the issue back on the table

For now, the issue appears to be on the backburner with Alberta’s minister for Service Alberta Nate Glubish telling reporters last month the majority of citizens made the decision to maintain the status quo.

Glubish said the government consulted with Albertans on the topic since late 2019, including launching a survey that garnered more than 140,000 responses with the overwhelming majority wishing to get rid of time changes.

He said the government will monitor how the issue plays out in other jurisdictions.