There is no daylight savings time in Saskatchewan.
Most of the province operates under Central Standard Time, and when it comes to daylight savings, the clocks remain the same. Some areas of the province are under Mountain Time, and do participate. However, for the majority of Saskatchewan, daylight savings time is a foreign concept.
RELATED: Should B.C. get rid of Daylight Saving Time?
In B.C. daylight savings time is an annual nuisance. People are either thankful for an extra hour of sleep, or peeved at the loss of an hour of beauty rest. Studies have shown that in the fall, (when an hour is gained), rates of heart attacks dropped by 21 percent, but in the spring time the risk increased 24 percent. Most of the patients in the study were vulnerable to heart disease to begin with.
Recently, the B.C. provincial government has polled citizens about whether daylight savings should be kept in practice. The survey received a large amount of public feedback, in fact, it was more feedback than cannabis regulation. According to an article published by Black Press, the survey garnered 158,000 responses in the first week, about eight times more than the cannabis regulation survey.
RELATED: B.C.’s daylight saving time survey seeing record number of responses
If B.C. does decide to do away with daylight savings, the province would operate on daylight time year round.
Daylight savings time appeared in the First World War as a way to get people outside during the daylight hours and curb fuel consumption. Many of the opponents of daylight savings time argue that the practice is anachronistic and out of touch with modern times.
That may be the case, but if that is grounds for the removal of daylight savings, perhaps the B.C. government should hold a survey on income tax, a practice that was introduced in 1917, two years after daylight savings time. Income tax was labelled as “temporary” by Robert Borden’s conservative government. However, the “temporary” tax was needed to pay off national debt Canada accrued after the war. Subsequent governments realized the potential of income tax, and have kept the tax in place.
Imagine the survey response rate if the question was about repealing income tax.
Perhaps B.C. should get with the times and undo these wartime policies. Surely the government would realize the right thing to do is forgoe all revenues generated by income tax. British Columbians deserve to live in a province where the time never changes, and their income is never taxed.
While B.C. residents will certainly still see their incomes taxed for the rest of their lives, it seems the government is primed to do away with daylight savings time.
At least there’s some consolation in that.
