The clock has started ticking for Manitobans who want to provide feedback on biannual time changes via a survey launched by the province on Wednesday.
It asks specifically which option residents would like to see. Choices include permanent daylight time, permanent standard time, sticking to the status quo and keeping time changes and a final option for no preference.
As of March, Manitoba transitioned into Daylight Saving Time (DST), when the sun rises later in the morning and sets later in the evening. Its competitor, standard time, begins in November. It sees early sunrise in the morning and darker evenings, according to the preamble to the province’s survey.
Get daily National news
Looking to the other Prairies, Saskatchewan sticks to permanent standard time, while Alberta transitioned to permanent DST. The latter province is now aligned with B.C. and the Northwest Territories.
Questions on topics, including the health impacts of daylight savings, are also posed in the survey.
“A recent analysis by Manitoba Health concluded that eliminating the time change would be better for population health than maintaining the status quo,” according to the province.
A report prepared by the province, and linked in the survey, discusses potential health implications.
Some of the impacts cited include interrupted sleep patterns, a 6.3 per cent increase in heart attacks on the Monday following the transition to DST and a reported uptick in car crashes and workplace injuries after the time change.
Just simpler to keep one time. Why bounce around? Winter is still dark and summer is still light. Standard a little better. Marginally more light in evening.
Standard time is my vote, dark winters can be very depressing. And why does it need to be light out till 10pm in the summer – go to bed and get up earlier.
I am involved in organizing a wide variety of spring sports and we would struggle to provide the depth of programming if we were to adopt permanent standard time. We do not have the capital to add appropriate lighting to every ball diamond and soccer field in the city. I cannot emphasize enough how much of an enormous issue this would be across the province.