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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says the province will do away with biannual time changes and keep daylight savings time throughout the year.
Alberta is currently on Mountain Daylight Time (UTC-6), meaning that if the legislation passes, the province would remain on that time permanently. The proposal is expected to be introduced for first reading this week.
Asked by a reporter on March 5 whether her government would pursue permanent standard time or permanent daylight saving time, Smith replied: “I like more sunlight at night, and I think most people do too, because we are on daylight eight months out of the year.”
“Going to standard 12 months out of the year would be a big adjustment for people,” she added.
The move follows years of public debate, including a 2021 referendum that narrowly rejected permanent daylight time.
Smith attributed the result in part to the wording of the referendum question, saying: “If you just ask people ‘do you want to stop the time change?’ you’d probably end up with overwhelming support on that, as they have in other jurisdictions.”
An Alberta government webpage on the referendum said permanent daylight time was proposed to align Alberta with neighbouring provinces and a broader trend toward ending seasonal clock changes.
It said moving permanently to standard time would place Alberta out of sync with those jurisdictions.
The province cited Saskatchewan, which has remained on UTC-6 year-round since the 1960s, and British Columbia, which had introduced legislation to adopt permanent daylight time at the time of Alberta’s referendum. British Columbia announced passage of that legislation on March 2, 2026. Yukon also permanently moved to daylight time in March 2020.
The Alberta government said it consulted industry groups and key stakeholders on the potential impact of adopting a single time zone year-round.
It asked how the change would affect operations and whether stakeholders preferred permanent Mountain Standard Time or Mountain Daylight Time. Permanent standard time would align Alberta year-round with British Columbia, while permanent daylight time would align it with Saskatchewan.
Stakeholders were also asked how much transition time ministries and organizations would need to adjust systems and operations.
The province said a 2019 survey found that 91 percent of 141,280 respondents supported a move to permanent daylight time.
