Clocks turn back in Ontario on Sunday, as debate over time continues

Ontarians will see their clocks turn back by an hour this Sunday, as they switch back to standard time until the spring — a change that seems to spark the same debate every November. 

The annual time switch has been questioned for years now, with many wanting to stick with daylight or standard time year-round to spare themselves the disruption.

Ontario passed legislation back in 2020 to make daylight time the standard all year — with a catch: it will only take effect if New York and Quebec also make the switch.

Quebec is in the midst of public consultations about the idea, while New York is grappling with various bills that would ultimately still require federal legislation before coming into effect.

Making the change without either place would "be disruptive for trade, stock markets and broadcasting," said Jack Fazzari, an Ontario Attorney General spokesperson, in a statement. 

New York state legislators had informal conversations with the province about changing the clock last year, but nothing concrete yet, according to New York Senator Joseph Griffo, who is helping to lead the charge on the state's legislation. He says support to permanently switch to daylight time is widespread across the state.

"They don't like falling back and springing forward, changing the clock twice a year. There's almost unanimity to say what can we do to stop that," he said. 

Critics of Ontario and New York's focus on switching to daylight time, say they're going about the time change the wrong way and should switch to standard time instead. 

The standard time Ontario uses in the winter, where the sun rises and sets an hour early, is more consistent with the body's biological clock, according to York University biology professor Patricia Lakin-Thomas, who studies biological time in organisms. 

She says sunlight resets our biological clock, signaling to our bodies that it's time to get our systems into gear. Steering away from that biological clock could lead to physiological stress and health issues down the line, she said. 

The U.S. experimented with making daylight time a year-round reality in the 70s, an initiative that Lakin-Thomas says lost a third of the public's support after about two years and was eventually dropped. 

"The public is hugely in favour when they bring in year-round daylight saving time," she said. 

"After a couple of years of getting up on dark cold winter mornings, which is when it really hits you, they ditch it."

In Ontario, an online petition started back in 2019 is still adding to its over 87,000 signatures, of people opposing a change to daylight time instead of standard time.