Parti Québécois promises to abolish time change, starting next year
The PQ intend to table a bill in the coming months, and hear from experts in a parliamentary committee.
Quebecers will wind back the clocks for the final time this year, if future PQ bill passes
Jacqueline Newsome · CBC News
·
Listen to this article
Estimated 2 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
Quebecers will turn back their clocks for the last time this weekend, according to the Parti Québécois (PQ). The party hopes to table a bill in the coming months to abolish the time change.
"To all the parents who will be dealing with their children's reactions this time change in the several weeks to come: this is probably the last year we'll be imposing such unnecessary constraints on ourselves," wrote the premier on Facebook.
On the campaign trail, St-Pierre Plamondon had said if elected, he would be open to abolishing the time change as the PQ believed the practice to be counterproductive to health.
An online public consultation launched in 2024 by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government found that 90 per cent of Quebecers who participated were in favour of ditching the time change.
The CAQ did not move forward with the change. In spring of 2025, the former justice minister Simon Jolin-Barrette stated that further consultation would be needed given a change in Quebec's economic situation.
"Several concerns — such as the opinions of experts and scientists, as well as the possibility of aligning with neighbouring states — have been raised through the consultation," wrote Jolin-Barrette in a statement.
"We must take these into account."
Time zones in Canada are getting complicated. These maps lay them out
Ontario to move permanently to daylight saving time as long as Quebec, New York follow
B.C., Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Manitoba have all decided to stop switching between daylight and standard time in the last year or so, while residents in Yukon and Saskatchewan haven't wound back their clocks in years.
In 2020, Ontario passed a law that said it would end its time change practice, but only if Quebec and New York did the same.
A PQ spokesperson told CBC that the party plans to hear from experts during a parliamentary committee hearing on adopting permanent daylight time or standard time.
The former offers more light in the evening, and the latter in the morning.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jacqueline is a reporter from Toronto, now happily living in Montreal. She loves to report on all stories, but has a special interest in emergency management and climate. You can reach out to her with a story tip at jacqueline.newsome@cbc.ca.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.