Daylight savings could soon be a thing of the past in the Northwest Territories once residents have their say.
During a sitting of the Legislative Assembly on March 30, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment R.J. Simpson announced that beginning Monday, April 4, the GNWT would hold a six-week consultation with residents on whether or not to keep “springing forward” and “falling back.”
Simpson said the consultation would take the form of a short online survey. Through this survey, residents can weigh in on whether or not they want to scrap daylight savings, and if so, whether they want to permanently adopt standard or daylight savings time.
“We will also reach out to key stakeholders and partners, including Indigenous governments, community governments, relevant businesses, and non-governmental organizations,” said Simpson.
Canada is home to the first city in the world to ever implement daylight savings time: Port Arthur, Ontario first changed its clocks on July 1, 1908. The practice has been standardized nationwide since shortly after the United States did so in 1966. Some Canadian jurisdictions have already done away with daylight savings, including Yukon, Saskatchewan, and parts of B.C.
“This information, along with developments in other jurisdictions, will help us determine the best path forward for the NWT,” said Simpson.
He said that once the consultation is complete, a report on the results will be released sometime later in the year.