What time is it? East Kootenay residents asked to decide about their clocks

Residents living in the East Kootenay region of B.C. are being asked to choose if they want to synchronize their clocks with B.C.'s Mountain Standard Time or the newly coined Alberta Time, which is an hour earlier.

Residents, businesses and seasonal property owners in southeast British Columbia are being asked whether the region should continue changing clocks twice a year or adopt one permanent time.

The request comes after British Columbia and Alberta announced they will eliminate seasonal time changes.

The Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK), the Town of Golden and Columbia Shuswap Regional District Area A have launched a non-binding survey that will remain open until Aug. 3.

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The survey asks participants to choose between keeping the current twice-yearly clock changes, adopting Mountain Standard Time year-round to align with the rest of British Columbia, or adopting Mountain Daylight Time year-round – renamed as Alberta Time – to remain synchronized with their eastern neighbours.

The consultation follows a decision by the RDEK board to initially align with British Columbia before reversing course and seeking public feedback after receiving widespread concerns from residents and organizations.

“We were flooded with letters … from sports groups, medical groups, the broad community,” RDEK board chair Rob Gay said. “So, we went back and instructed the staff to do a survey of the community.”

As of this week, Gay said about 9,600 people had responded to the survey.

He said the debate comes down to balancing the region’s close ties to both Alberta and the rest of British Columbia.

Tourism operators and major employers with strong ties to Alberta say synchronizing with that province would make business, commuting and recreation easier, while others argue aligning with the rest of British Columbia would simplify access to health care and government services.

“The ski hills are expanded, the number of golf courses, camping sites and a lot of those residents and users are from Alberta. So, the operators of those would prefer, from a business case, to stay on Alberta time. It’s just easier,” Gay said.

“On the other hand, we’re linked very strongly with the Kelowna Hospital for heart and for cancer treatments.”

‘Fairly divided’

Andy Brown, executive director of Tourism Golden, said businesses are divided over which option would be best.

“I’m hearing the same thing that it’s fairly divided. It’s split down the middle, depending on who you talk to and the industry that they’re in,” Brown said.

He said Alberta and British Columbia are the region’s two largest tourism markets and keeping the same time as Alberta could make travel simpler for many visitors.

“There’s an argument to be made that the status quo of sticking with the rest of Alberta, like we’ve been, will make it easier for those visitors to keep coming here and know that there’s no time change,” Brown said.

Tourism Golden is not taking a position on the issue and is instead encouraging residents and businesses to complete the survey.

Survey results will be presented to the participating local governments in October before any recommendation is made to the provincial government.

The survey is only one factor that will be considered and will not determine the outcome on its own.

With files from Alesia Fieldberg