An annoying but fleeting point of friction for many businesses is being tossed aside this fall as parts of the country do away with the twice-annual time change starting Sunday.
But it will be a bit of work to adjust to permanent daylight time, making sure meetings happen, deliveries arrive and passengers catch flights when they’re supposed to. That’s especially true if a business based in a no-time-change region is dealing with another where the clocks are falling back: a salesperson in Calgary may forget a customer in Toronto is now one hour ahead, and not two. And what’s the deal with Kenora, Ont., again?
“For most small businesses, the impact is pretty manageable,” said Keyli Loeppky, director of Alberta and interprovincial affairs at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
“The biggest challenge that they’ll face is making sure that they’re maintaining alignment with customers and suppliers and employees, especially for businesses that operate or do business across provincial borders.”
Loeppky said businesses in manufacturing or wholesale trade logistics are paying particularly keen attention.
“Even small differences can affect their communication and shipping schedules and overall business operations.”
Most of British Columbia, Alberta, the Northwest Territories, Manitoba and parts of northwestern Ontario this year have opted to stay on year-round daylight time, meaning mornings will be darker but there will be more light in the afternoon.
Saskatchewan has been sitting out the clock change dance since the ‘60s, staying on Central Daylight Time year-round. Yukon did away with the clock switch in 2020.
Meanwhile, clocks are winding backward as usual in most of Ontario and Quebec, though Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon signalled the end to the seasonal time change is nigh in his province. The time change is a go as usual in Atlantic Canada. Nunavut, which straddles three time zones, is weighing what to do as its neighbours ditch the time change.
The Manitoba Chambers of Commerce gauged members’ views on the time change and found 54 per cent supported the move to permanent daylight time, said acting president and CEO Elisabeth Saftiuk.
“Businesses highlighted concerns around employee fatigue, productivity, scheduling and operational disruptions,” she said of the status quo.
The chamber was pleased that Manitoba will remain in alignment with parts of Ontario that lie west of the 90th meridian, including the city of Kenora.
“It reinforces the importance of keeping Manitoba aligned with the communities and businesses we work with most closely,” Saftiuk wrote in an email.
Jen Riley, president and CEO of the British Columbia Chamber of Commerce, said there has been a decade-long push among members to do away with the time change. The group saw no compelling case to keep up with the twice-yearly ritual that was initially introduced as a wartime energy-saving measure.
“Tired parents, twice a year, impacts productivity at work the next day,” she said.
Riley said there could be a “minor inconvenience for a couple of days,” but overall the policy change is a benefit. As long as the eastern provinces keep up the status quo, she said scheduling meetings with folks in Toronto, for instance, will be easier with a smaller time gap.
A spokesperson for Microsoft says the software firm has released Windows updates and Outlook guidance ahead of Sunday. It’s advising customers to make sure their devices are current and are using the new region-specific time zone for B.C., Alberta or Manitoba.
“Outlook users should also review important upcoming and recurring meetings that extend beyond Nov. 1 and update those meetings to the appropriate new time zone.”
For Teams video conferences, time zone changes made in a device’s settings are reflected automatically unless the user has turned off “Follow OS settings.”
The clock reset carries implications for the travel industry, where precise timing is key. Initially, passengers may need to exert more mental effort.
“We won’t just automatically know and we’ll have to continuously check now,” said Barry Prentice, who heads the University of Manitoba’s transport institute.
The smaller time difference between the West and the rest of Canada for some of the year could make it easier for eastbound airplanes to depart a little later in the day. Come Sunday, an aircraft taking off from Vancouver at 7:30 p.m. would arrive in Toronto at 2 a.m. local time rather than 3 a.m., making the trip slightly more palatable.
“Right now, you can’t really have any flights scheduled to leave Vancouver going east after about 7 p.m., because by the time they get there the time change is such that people are arriving too late or there’s a curfew at the airport,” Prentice said.
Schedules will also need to be tweaked so travellers can make their connecting flights. “Maybe a route has a 60-minute connection in one season and 120 minutes in another. Unless the schedule is adjusted, there’s a potential impact,” said Christopher Read, former director of corporate development at Air Canada.
That said, global airlines such as Air Canada and WestJet operate across dozens of time zones daily, including those subject to daylight time.
“The systems in place, they can handle all of this,” he said.
While many welcome seeing the sun in the sky for longer after school or work, experts have warned about the impact of dark mornings on sleep and health and have advocated for a move to permanent standard time instead.
University of British Columbia economist Patrick Baylis co-authored a recent study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that flagged how late sunrises can throw circadian rhythms out of whack, taking a toll on sleep and bringing a host of safety and productivity issues.
Studies have shown that places that have sunrises later in the day tend to have lower test scores in schools, he said.
“So you can imagine, thinking about businesses, that a lot of the same impacts are probably playing out in terms of lack of sleep. It means that employees are not going to perform as well, businesses in general are not going to be as productive,” he said.
That’s not to say there aren’t some benefits of having more light at the end of the day, he said. There is some evidence of higher retail activity when the sun is out later.
“I’m very sympathetic to that argument. Like anybody else, I like activities after work. I like being able to exercise or just be outside when it’s light out,” Baylis said.
“Those benefits are pretty easy to understand, which is why it tends to be a popular policy. I don’t think they outweigh the safety and sleep and productivity concerns.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2026.
