Today in the legislature we debated Bill 40: Interpretation Amendment Act, 2019 at second reading. This act, if passed, would allow the government to switch to permanent daylight savings time. As evident in my second reading speech (reproduced in Video and Text below) I spoke (and voted) against this bill.

The reasons why I voted against this bill are fourfold.

First, the survey given to the public last summer followed a flawed process in my view. Only two options were presented and considered:

1. B.C. continues the practice of changing our clocks bi-annually;
2. B.C. adopts year-round observance of Daylight Saving Time.

The option

3. B.C. adopts year-round observance of Standard Time.

was not on the table. This is particularly unfortunate as the survey was also conducted during the summer months while British Columbians were enjoying long sunny evenings without having to worry about concomitant dark mornings. Inadvertently, I would argue, the survey had a built in bias to produce the answer that it did: overwhelming support for moving to year-round observance of Daylight Savings Time.

Second, the move to permanent daylight savings has already been tried, rejected and reversed after complaints in both the United Kingdom and the United States.

Third, switching to permanent daylight savings would mean that children would be heading off to school in the dark. This would lead to safety issues, particularly as you go further north in British Columbia. For example, on December 21, 2019 sunrise would be at 9:02 AM (instead of 8:02AM) in Victoria and 9:27 AM (instead of 8:27)  in Prince George.

Fourth, remaining on Standard Time is important in that it ensures that solar noon, 12:00 noon, and hence our internal body clocks are matched as closely as possible. For example, on December 21 of this year, solar noon (maximum solar altitude) in Victoria will occur at 12:12. If we stayed on Daylight Savings time, solar noon would be at 13:12, an hour later.

Had this legislation proposed keeping us on Standard Time year around, I would  have supported it as I appreciate the health and safety arguments associated with annually “springing forward” and” falling back”. The reality is, existing legislation already allows the province to move in this direction through an Order-In-Council if the Premier and cabinet deem staying on Standard Time to be in the best interests of all British Columbians.

Video of Speech

Text of Speech

A. Weaver: I rise to take my place in the second reading debate on Bill 40, Interpretation Amendment Act, 2019. This bill proposes to enable government to permanently set the province of British Columbia on daylight saving time, but without prejudicing some of the existing law within local government and acts which enable certain jurisdictions to change between mountain time and standard time.

I’m rising to speak in opposition to this bill for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I would argue that the process which led to the public feedback into this is fundamentally flawed. Two, I don’t think the evidence has actually been explored thoroughly as to why we would shift to daylight, as opposed to standard, time. Let me first say that in politics, it’s often very useful to remember what we’ve done in the past. Too often, societies repeat the same issues that we’ve done time and time again.

We only need go back to the Second World War, when the United States went to daylight time during the extension of the war, to conserve energy, and then went back immediately following the war. We also know that in the U.S. when the OPEC crisis was on, it was decreed that they would stay on daylight saving time during the OPEC crisis. However, 11 months into what was going to be, I believe, a 16-month period, they switched back to standard time, because of the complaints and issues that I’ll raise in a second.

More importantly in 1968, Great Britain went down the path for three full years of actually only having daylight saving time. Then they switched back in 1971 for the reason that I’ll articulate in a few moments — they were seeing, sure, a decrease in the amount of accidents at night but an increase in the amount of accidents in the day — for safety issues, and people complaining about the fact that they no longer were waking up and seeing any sun.

Right now in the province of British Columbia, we actually have three time zones. We have, where we stand here today — we’re standing presently on Pacific Standard Time, which is basically coordinated universal time minus eight hours. That’s on the day we’ll be debating the bill. When the bill was introduced we were on Pacific Daylight Time, which is coordinated universal time minus seven hours.

Fort St. John and the area around there — Dawson Creek, etc. — stay on Mountain Standard Time throughout the year. So there’s always a time difference between Fort St. John and Vancouver in the winter months, but not so much in the summer months, when they are on Mountain Standard Time and we’re on daylight saving time.

To throw a wrench into it, Cranbrook and the areas around there has mountain time, but they still constantly switch between mountain daylight time and mountain standard time. The reason why I raise that is that right off the bat, evidence suggests that any argument that we need to be consistent within neighbouring jurisdictions clearly doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, in that we’re not even consistent in our own jurisdiction.

More importantly, when we look right now, what would happen on December 21 of this year…. Let us suppose we were not…. Well, if we’re on standard time, as we are now, on December 21 — that’s the shortest day of the year — in Victoria, sunrise would be at 8:02 in the morning. If we were on daylight saving time, sunrise would be at 9:02 in the morning. If we’re in Prince George, Pacific Standard Time, sunrise on December 21 of this year would be at 8:27. If we were on Pacific Daylight Time — or Pacific Time, as referred to in this bill — sunrise on December 21 would be at 9:27 in the morning.

Now, this is precisely the reason why these failed experiments, which occurred in the U.K. and in the U.S., to stay on daylight saving time were reversed. People would wake up, particularly in places like Prince George or Victoria. Their kids would go to school. It would be pitch black, not even civil twilight. There would be accidents, and there would be children getting hurt and complaints. One of the reasons why we know that there will be complaints is because the reason why we set standard time is to ensure that the solar clock matches with our internal clock. There’s a reason why we use standard time.

For example, coming back to my illustration on December 21. On December 21 of this year, noon in Victoria will occur at 12:11, coinciding with the maximum solar altitude. There’s a reason for that, because our bodies have adjusted over millennia to understand that in the morning we wake up in the sun, at noon is when the high sun is there and at evening our sleep cycles take us to sleep. If we stayed on daylight time, it would be the high sun at 13:12, an hour later, which is inconsistent with our own internal body clocks.

Deputy Speaker: Thank you. Member, may I pause for a moment?

M. Stilwell: May I seek leave to make an introduction?

Leave granted.

Introductions by Members

M. Stilwell: Joining us in the House today is an award-winning Canadian comedian and performer. He doesn’t have as many awards as I have, so hopefully he can step up his game the next time he comes here to visit. But he is the host of CBC’s The Debaters, which has his participants debating top Canadian topics such as: are forks better than spoons? Or: was Darth Vader a bad father?

I often draw inspiration from Steve’s shows as we debate here in the House, and just as he will be gathering some information here today to formulate some of his future stand-up performances, I believe he actually keeps me around as his friend because our political conversations give him a wealth of material to draw from. So for the record, forks are better than spoons. I think all British Columbians need to know that.

Would the House please make my friend Steve Patterson feel very welcome.

Debate Continued

A. Weaver: Well, I am very pleased to know that we have The Debaters coordinator there. I’m looking so very forward to this upcoming Saturday’s debate, where we actually have: be it resolved that this House approve going to daylight savings time or staying on standard time. I think there could be some very good comedy framed around that, of which I’m sure members in this House would be delighted to participate.

More importantly, the fundamental reason why this process has been flawed is that you don’t ask British Columbians in the height of summer, when they’re sitting on their patios sipping their pina coladas and their margaritas, saying, “Oh, isn’t it glorious to have this evening sunshine” when they’re not actually thinking at the same time, “What about that loss of morning sunshine?” because it’s sunny all the time…. You don’t ask them: “Do you want to stay on daylight savings or not?”

In essence, that was the question. There was no option there for staying on standard time, the option that I suspect we’ll see the European Union go, the option that actually makes sense from our internal clocks and actually the option that makes sense in terms of the solar altitude being overhead at noon in as many jurisdictions as possible.

It is no surprise that government had so many people signing up, because they were given one option in the summer, when they’re enjoying their late evenings. Who wouldn’t want to have lots of late evenings? The information was not provided to the people of British Columbia about many of the negative aspects of doing it — the effects on our internal clocks, the published research on seasonal affective disorder, the fact that we know, historically, there have been safety issues with children going to school, the fact that, historically, this failed experiment has been done in the U.K. for three years and twice in America already. Each time, because of complaints, it’s reverted back to the process.

Now, I’m not arguing that we should continue with the switch from daylight savings to Pacific Standard, because that, too, is an artificial construct. What I’m arguing is that if we’re going to move forward with this…. And we don’t need this legislation to do that because, already, government has the ability through regulation to switch us permanently on standard time if they so wish to do so. This legislation only allows us to potentially give government a decision as to whether they want to move permanently on daylight time.

Given that I would argue, fundamentally, year-round daylight time is simply the wrong approach, and given that the existing legislation already allows government to move through regulation on permanent year-round standard time, which I would have no problem speaking in favour of, and given that it’s clear that people in British Columbia don’t like the switches, it seems to me that this legislation is entirely unnecessary and, if enacted, only gives government options of doing something that we know, historically, we’re just going to turn around….

I look forward to three years from now, if this bill passes and we follow it on this path, to pointing to Hansard and saying: “Look. I told you so.” Everyone is complaining now because Johnny and Jill going to school at eight in the morning are going through in pitch black walking around, and their first accidents are happening. The public outcry is going to be there. We’re going to either revert back to standard time, or we’re going to revert back to a switch.

Standard time would be my preference. I think standard time would be the preference if people were given the information on which to make an informed decision, other than just giving them one option in the midst of summer when we all enjoy our summer evenings.

For that reason, I’ll be voting in opposition to this bill. Thank you for your attention.