Strong support for year-long DST in the Kootenays: But could it cause confusion?

The numbers are in and roughly 93% of polled British Columbians are in favour of switching to daylight savings time (DST) all year round.

Over 223,273 respondent made it clear in this year’s survey that falling back and springing forward is a waste of time.

But what do the numbers show in the Kootenays? Only 5.7 % of the survey was completed in the region, but the stats share the same attitude.

East Kootenay 5,400 2.4%
West Kootenay 6,591 3.0%
Creston 586 0.3%

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Of the 6,591 respondents in the West Kootenay, 95.6% supported the switch to DST.

91.6% of the 5,400 in the East Kootenay also showed support.

96.6% also supported the switch to DST of the 584 respondents in the Creston Valley.

More than 50% of Kootenay respondents were in favour of aligning the timezones with neighbouring states and provinces. Roughly 25% remained neutral and just over 20% of people said it wasn’t important.

But how would the change to full time DST affect the region?

There are essentially 3 different time zones in the south Kootenays;  Pacific Standard Time (PST) in the west and Mountain Standard Time (MST) in the east. Meanwhile Creston, though MST, has never observed daylight savings time and may never will.

Let’s say its 6:00 pm and the whole Province made the switch to DST all year round.

In a wintertime scenario with DST the time would be 6:00 pm in Castlegar PST, 7:00 pm in both Creston and Cranbrook MST and back to 6:00 pm in Alberta MST which would not observe DST.

If Creston chooses not to make the switch it would simply align itself with the rest of BC (6:00 pm MST – No DST), but the East Kootenay would still have an irregular time difference (7:00 pm MST – DST), sandwiched between Alberta and B.C.