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OPINION: Bill Walton, Daylight Saving Time Modernization Act

By-law DSTMA NB-20180401
20180316 sundial www

The recent confusion concerning the changing of Standard Time to Daylight Saving Time emphasizes the need for revision to this antiquated method of matching working (and leisure) hours to the sun. It seems many people still cannot remember the Spring Forward, Fall Back instruction for setting their timepieces even though Daylight Saving has been with us since a New Zealander proposed the system in 1895.

Originally, the resynchronization with daylight was to keep working hours in daylight as the earth rotated in its trip around the sun. While farmers had always worked in whatever daylight was available to them, factory workers needed light to see what they were doing and sunlight was their primary source. Eventually, most of the world adopted the Daylight Saving Time idea although there are exceptions.

The Canadian method is to allow Provinces to decide whether to use DST. The Provinces passed down the sometimes-contentious issue to municipalities. Indeed, Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) was the first locality in Canada to use DST. On the Provincial side, Saskatchewan, where there are many farmers, has deferred using DST as does Nunavut where the summer midnight sun is confusing enough.

The new kid on the block, Energy Conservation, has given Daylight Saving Time new emphasis as we try to use less electricity. Some people have proposed double daylight saving, moving the clocks 2 hours instead of one. Other have suggested abolishing the DST altogether, opting to adjust hours of work as needed or as accepted by labour unions and collective agreements.

Faced with the attendant problems of people being late or early for church twice a year, missing early-bird breakfast hour and thinking they still had time to drive to work, the Solicitors Department at City Hall in North Bay, with encouragement from a long-time serving Councillor X (name withheld until the By-law passes)  has proposed the following by-law:

Being a By-Law to improve the energy efficiency and efficacy of the City, the City of North Bay hereby enacts the Daylight Saving Time Modernization Act, to be effective on October 1, 2018, and henceforth until amended or repealed. After due diligence and careful study the City will ameliorate the Daylight Savings Time Act of Canada, its Provinces, Territories and Municipalities as benefits the City of North Bay by: advancing the clocks by one-half an hour (30 minutes) on each first day of March and April and move back one-half an hour on the first day of October and November.

The By-law will be promoted to other Ontario Municipalities, Provinces and to the Federal Government where it is hoped the many Ambassadors to other nations will propagate the idea worldwide. The By-law will be posted on the Mayor’s Facebook site. Councillor X has suggested that Newfoundland and Labrador will be especially happy with the Daylight Saving Time Modernization Act as they will, for a few months, be in tune with the rest of Canada.

Watchmakers around the world will have the opportunity to market new half-hour adjustable timepieces; computer manufacturers and software engineers will delight at the prospect of designing new algorithms; airlines will have a new excuse for delayed flights; unions will have a new bargaining chip; schoolchildren and their dogs will have another excuse. The benefits are legion.

The one dissenting councillor, councillor M, says he will vote against By-law DSTMA NB-20180401. He claims that he pays no attention to time clocks, reckoning his time by the sun, or in some cases, by the moon. This may explain some of the other eccentricities that councillor M  has shown on cloudy days over the years.

The DIA, the Chamber of Commerce, the NBMCA, the Sault Ste Marie Diocese, The Masonic Lodge, and the West Ferris Minor Hockey Association have shown support for the new DST by-law. The NBTA said in a news release that this by-law is one of the better things the current council has done.

In anticipation of the new DST initiative, all BayToday readers should practice moving their clocks ahead one-half hour on April 1. Practice makes perfect. Just saying.





Bill Walton

About the Author: Bill Walton

Retired from City of North Bay in 2000. Writer, poet, columnist
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