Saskatchewan doesn’t change its clocks. Should the rest of the country follow suit?

A person faces away, looking out at a field in Saskatchewan. (Isi Parente via Pexels)

Most of Canada will wake up Sunday morning having lost an hour in the middle of the night. But not Saskatchewan.

Time will spring forward one hour at 2 a.m. on March 9 when daylight saving time (DST) begins. The change will give people an extra hour of daylight at the end of the day.

Saskatchewan observes central standard time (CST) year-round, except for a few border communities.

Chyna Dawn lived in B.C. and Alberta before moving to Saskatchewan. Come Sunday, she’s looking forward to time staying still.

“When I lived elsewhere, it was like ‘Am I late for work? Am I going to be there? Am I gaining sleep? Am I losing sleep?’” she said.

Prior to 1966, time in Saskatchewan was determined by municipalities, which resulted in a patchwork of time zones within the province, including mountain standard time (MST), CST and DST.

Saskatchewan adopted The Time Act in 1966 to make time more uniform.

Now, most of the province shares the same time with Alberta in the summer months while aligning with Manitoba’s clocks during the winter.

But there are some border communities that roll their clocks back and forth.

Lloydminster sits on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border and follows Alberta’s time zones. Gerald Aalbers, the town’s mayor, says smaller Saskatchewan communities within 50 kilometres of the city observe “Lloydminster time,” due to the school division.

He says it can get confusing.

“If I’m going to a meeting within 40 minutes or 45 minutes of Lloydminster in Saskatchewan, I’ll call ahead and say, ‘Are you on Alberta time or Saskatchewan time?’” said Aalbers, who used to live in southeast Saskatchewan.

“I would prefer not to change time and that Alberta and Saskatchewan would be on the same time all the time. But that’s not my choice.”

With more provinces and states talking about daylight saving time, experts say the clock could be ticking down on the time-honoured tradition.

Last year, Donald Trump said the Republican Party would do its best to eliminate daylight saving time.

“I think it’s probably closer now (to be abolished) than it’s been at any other time,” said Peter Graefe, associate professor of political professor at McMaster University.

Governments have stopped time change before and many others have considered it.

Those living in the Yukon permanently turned their clocks forward to DST in 2020 following public consultation.

That same year, Ontario passed legislation to permanently remain on daylight time, but only if Quebec and New York made the move, too. Last fall, Quebec launched a public consultation on abolishing time change, but the government didn’t promise it would lead to any change.

B.C. has also dabbled in the idea, but the province has previously said it wants to remain aligned with Washington, Oregon and California.

“Technically it would be fairly straightforward (to implement), especially since so many aspects of time in our lives are controlled by computers,” Graefe said.

But dealing with different jurisdictions could get complicated, if only one province or state makes the change.

“The main cost of a change is economic, the idea that the people you’re trading with or having, relationships within other provinces will be thrown off by that time change,” he said.

“Even if you were to change it, there would be a lot of disagreement about what is the proper time to adopt.”

Research suggests standard time is the proper time to follow, according to Rebecca Robillard, University of Ottawa professor and co-chair of the Canadian Sleep Research Consortium.

“The science is very clear on this. We should stick to standard time all year round,” Robillard said.

Standard time is set naturally by the sun and humans have evolved to function within that time, according to Robillard.

“Our biological clock is in need of that connection with the light-dark cycle from the sun,” she said. “Messing up with that alignment artificially twice a year does kind of confuse the signals from our biological clock.”

Research suggests the switch to DST is linked to adverse health effects, including an increase in heart attacks and strokes, infections, diseases, workplace injuries and car crashes.

“There are consequences for mental health and productivity,” she said. “So it sounds like a lot, but it is not surprising when we think of all the functions that are serviced by sleep and the biological clock that are disrupted by this abrupt change,” she said.

There are ways to cope with time change. Robillard suggests adjusting your sleep schedule, workout routines and eating times 15 minutes each day in the days leading up to the time change.