Kinew not committed on permanent time change as B.C. makes the switch

CTV’s Jeff Keele looks into whether Manitoba is considering following B.C.’s lead in moving away from seasonal time changes.

Switching permanently to daylight time isn’t a top priority for Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew.

Following the announcement Monday in B.C. by Premier David Eby, who said the province will no longer change their clocks back and forth after this weekend, Kinew was asked if Manitoba might look at following in Eby’s footsteps.

“Not right now. I’m focused on fixing health care and lowering your cost of living,” said Kinew.

The premier said he understands this is something everyone has an opinion on, but he believes there are other issues that need to be tackled first.

“Some people feel really passionately about daylight saving time; other people are just like, ‘We are already committed to the status quo,’” he said.

“Then we also had people say, ‘Well, it’ll be odd if you fly straight south on a plane or drive straight south and then all of a sudden you change your clock at the American border.’ So for me, there’s a whole bunch of opinions out there.”

Brianna Solberg, the director of provincial affairs with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said Manitoba members were surveyed about the time change, and 83 per cent were in favour of a permanent time.

However, she said if it were to happen, businesses would need the proper consultation and coordination before it happened.

“What we saw happen in B.C., what we’re hearing, is it came with limited notice, limited consultation. So it does create a lot of headaches for businesses who now have to adjust their shipping times, their coordination with different cross-border trades,” said Solberg.

She notes industries like transportation, trucking, manufacturing, and agriculture will all be negatively impacted by the change if the U.S. doesn’t make the change as well.

“If Manitoba were to look to go forward with something like this, ideally, it wouldn’t be done unilaterally, with the U.S. and other provinces - Saskatchewan, Alberta, and other neighbouring provinces following suit,” she said.

Time change can impact people’s health

Dr. Inna Rabinovich-Nikitin, an assistant professor at the Max Rady College of Medicine at the University of Manitoba and principal investigator at the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences at St. Boniface Hospital Research, said Manitoba should look at eliminating the time change, as it can be unhealthy for people.

“It causes a misalignment of the circadian (rhythm) which eventually increases the risk for heart attacks, for strokes, also for car accidents and, in general, for mood disorders and also increases the risk for depression,” said Rabinovich-Nikitin.

She said the human body aligns with the daily light and dark cycles, and when those are changed, even by an hour, it can impact the body’s blood pressure and heart rate.

While she agrees with B.C. stopping the clock-changing process, she said it would be better if they stopped on standard time, like Saskatchewan, instead of daylight time.

“We have sunrises much later in the day. So basically, we wake up when it’s still dark outside, and yes, we will have more hours of light during the day, but what happens is our body is not adjusted to wake up when it’s dark, and therefore it will eventually increase the risk of everything that I just mentioned.”

She notes other countries have tried to stick with just daylight time but eventually went back to cycling through time changes, as it wasn’t beneficial for the economy or residents’ health.