Time is changing in Golden, and some residents say it is not what they wanted.
“This is going to put an extra level of burden on people,” said Golden, B.C., resident Matt Clifford.
On Wednesday, the Town of Golden announced that after one last clock change to mountain standard time on Nov. 1, it will remain in sync with the majority of B.C. on permanent Pacific daylight time, which is seven hours behind the Co-ordinated Universal Time (UTC-7).
Under Pacific time, Golden residents will experience sunrises and sunsets one hour earlier, throughout the year.
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This comes seven months after a decision by the provincial government to end twice annual time changes and adopt UTC-7. However, the province also allowed individual municipalities and districts to opt out of the time change. In August, the Regional District of East Kootenay voted to remain on mountain daylight time year-round, in line with Alberta.
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Clifford worries what it will mean to have Golden in a different time zone than the East Kootenay.
“We’re a small community and going out of sync with the rest of the valley, which we rely on so heavily, that I find is the biggest problem.”
He’s helping to distribute a petition to have the time zone issue re-examined by council.
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Golden is located in the Columbia Valley, on the east side of Rogers Pass and about 500 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.
Clifford said people travel south of town into communities like Cranbrook every day for medical care, sports, school and work.
Now, all Columbia Valley communities south of Golden — which house the region’s school district and major health-care centre — will be on a different time zone.
“It’s just adding an extra strain,” Clifford said.
He said because of the area’s geography, the tendency for Rogers Pass to close to traffic, its proximity to Calgary and its connection to the Columbia Valley, many Golden residents feel it is more valuable for them to be in alignment with the rest of the East Kootenay and Alberta than B.C.
Over the summer, the Town of Golden partnered with the Regional District of East Kootenay to conduct a public engagement survey.
A total of 1,336 responses were provided from the Golden area. About 55 per cent of respondents supported staying aligned with Alberta on permanent mountain daylight time (UTC-6) and 45 per cent supported mountain standard time, or Pacific time (UTC-7).
“It’s a no win decision,” said Ron Oszust, the mayor of Golden.
He and the majority of council voted in favour of the change to mountain standard time.
“Regardless of how the vote went, they were going to hear from a half of their population,” said Oszust.
He said he knows the community is split on the issue but said council weighed factors like health data, public safety concerns, and the rest of the province’s time zone when making the decision to switch to sync with Pacific time.
“This is something we will continue to talk about,” he said. “But this is the direction that has been set at this point in time to be on B.C. time.”
He added that while the decision has been made, it is not set in stone.
Clifford said he was told residents have until the evening of Sept. 9 to email the town and submit their petition.
