Summer time 2024: When does the time change?

Millions of Canadians will notice their clocks go back one hour on November 3, marking the end of Daylight Saving Time for this year.

Dawn will come earlier, and it will get dark earlier in the afternoon when standard time returns. Most provinces and territories observe the change, which occurs on the first Sunday in November each year, with the exception of Saskatchewan and Yukon, which observe standard time year-round.

Canadians have, perhaps reluctantly, participated in the sunlight-oriented time change since 1918. The federal government implemented daylight saving time during World War I to increase production by shifting one hour of sunlight from before breakfast to after dinner. Germany and Great Britain had already passed similar laws.

Government-regulated time changes ended with World War I, but were resumed in World War II when Canada, along with the United States, returned to year-round daylight saving time. Most countries changed their clocks during this time. Since then, provincial and municipal governments have regulated daylight saving time in their respective time zones.

The schedule we know today is only 17 years old. In March 2007, then US President George W. Bush changed the existing daylight saving time from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, introducing a one-week extension of the previous time frame. The goal was to save energy and shorten the time it takes people to light their homes. Canada followed suit.

How long Canada should keep this schedule is up for debate – the Canadian Sleep Society and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine have called for an end to daylight saving time.

In November 2020, Ontario passed the Time Amendment Act, which sets the stage for making daylight saving time the norm year-round. Ontario's attorney general said the government would only implement it if Quebec and New York state were on board.

Earlier this week, Quebec launched a public consultation on the time change, which could lead to legislation.

Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette said Tuesday that the clock change would have a “significant impact on the lives of Quebecers” and could affect people's ability to concentrate and make them more irritable.

In March, nearly 90,000 people signed a petition to permanently end daylight saving time in Canada.