Ottawa Now - Does it make sense for Ontario to preserve the Daylight Savings formula?

 

The days are getting shorter and the nighttime skies are getting longer, as we turn the clocks back one hour on Sunday. A return to Standard Time begins at 2AM Sunday morning – a practice that most of Ontario still follows. However, more Canadian provinces are ditching that approach, and another one could be following suit sooner than we think. Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has announced he’s going to get rid of the time changes, but adds that he’s not sure whether keeping Daylight Time or Standard Time is the proper play. Here in Ontario, Premier Doug Ford has previously stated that the province won’t do away with time changes unless New York and Quebec make that call first. In fact, back in 2020, legislation at Queen’s Park passed to lock in Daylight Savings Time as the permanent choice. But if Quebec bows out, and New York doesn’t, Ontario is caught in quite the pickle. How much difference can one hour really make? Dr. Elliott Lee is a sleep specialist and an Associate Professor at the Sleep Disorder Clinic at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. He joins Kristy Cameron on Ottawa Now.