For the first time, Victorians won’t be getting that extra hour of sleep when November arrives.
When the clock reaches 2 a.m. on Sunday, November 1st, nothing will change. British Columbians will not turn their clocks back one hour as the Province officially completes its move to permanent daylight time.
BC’s final seasonal time change happened on March 8th, when clocks moved ahead by one hour. The province will now remain on the same time year-round, officially called Pacific time and set at seven hours behind Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC−7.
While most people won’t need to do anything, the change will have a noticeable impact on when the sun rises and sets this winter.
Later sunsets and much later sunrises
BC’s decision does not create any additional daylight. Instead, the available daylight will appear one hour later on the clock than Victorians were accustomed to during previous winters.
On November 1st, the sun is expected to rise in Victoria at approximately 7:59 a.m. and set at 5:54 p.m. Under the previous system, turning the clocks back would have shifted those times to approximately 6:59 a.m. and 4:54 p.m.
The difference will become more noticeable as the days grow shorter.
Around the winter solstice on December 21st, sunrise in Victoria is expected at approximately 9:02 a.m., with sunset at about 5:21 p.m. By the final days of December, sunrise will be as late as 9:05 a.m.
That means many Victorians will be travelling to work or school before sunrise. The tradeoff will be more daylight at the end of the workday and an end to sunsets shortly after 4 p.m.
A change years in the making
In September 2018, municipal leaders from across BC supported a resolution calling on the provincial government to stop the twice-yearly clock change.
The proposal argued that daylight saving time no longer served a vital purpose in a connected economy and that changing the clocks created more costs and disruption than benefits.
The issue gained significant momentum under the late former premier John Horgan.
In 2019, Horgan’s government launched a provincewide consultation that attracted a record-breaking 223,273 responses. More than 62,000 came from Vancouver Island and the South Coast and Sunshine Coast region.
When the results were released that September, 93% of respondents supported moving to permanent daylight time.
“The people of British Columbia have spoken and their collective voice has come through loudly and clearly,” Horgan said at the time.
The Horgan government introduced the Interpretation Amendment Act in October 2019, creating the legal framework for BC to adopt permanent daylight time and rename the province’s time zone Pacific time.
Horgan said the legislation created a clear path forward, but his government initially planned to wait for Washington, Oregon and California so the west coast could make the transition together. The legislation also left the door open for BC to proceed independently if doing so was considered in the province’s best interest.
For years afterward, the change remained on hold until current Premier David Eby ultimately announced in March 2026 that BC would proceed without waiting for its American neighbours, completing the process that began under Horgan seven years earlier.
Not everyone supports the time BC selected
Although there is widespread support for ending the twice-yearly clock change, not everyone agrees that permanent daylight time was the best choice.
Following the announcement, Camosun College psychology instructor Dr. Michael Pollock told Victoria Buzz that sleep experts welcomed the end of seasonal clock changes but would have preferred permanent standard time.
Pollock said delaying morning sunlight could affect the body’s circadian clock, making it more difficult for people to wake up during the winter.
“We’ll have artificially darkened mornings and without that sunlight early, our brains will be thinking we should be sleeping in and staying up later,” said Pollock.
Stanford Medicine researchers have also concluded that maintaining one time year-round would be better than changing clocks twice annually, although their modelling found permanent standard time offered greater potential health benefits than permanent daylight time.
Victoria and Washington could be one hour apart
The change could also create some initial confusion for Victorians travelling to Washington state.
As things currently stand, Washington will turn its clocks back on November 1st. That would put Victoria one hour ahead of Port Angeles and Seattle during the winter, despite the communities traditionally sharing the same time.
The United States House of Representatives passed legislation in July that would establish permanent daylight time across most of the country, but the proposal still requires approval from the US Senate before becoming law.
Unless that happens before November, travellers using the Coho ferry, taking flights or attending events in Washington will need to remember that departure and arrival times are listed using the local time at each destination.
Will phones and computers change automatically?
Most newer phones, computers and other internet-connected devices should recognize BC’s updated time-zone rules, provided their software is current.
However, it may still be worth checking alarms, calendars and older electronic devices on November 1st. Devices relying on outdated time-zone information could mistakenly turn themselves back by one hour.
Traditional clocks, watches, vehicle clocks and appliances that require manual adjustments should simply be left alone.
While the first weekend in November will feel largely uneventful, the bigger adjustment will come in December, when the sun won’t rise until around 9 a.m. but will remain up past 5 p.m. each day.
With files from Curtis Blandy.
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