Is it time to scrap daylight saving in Yukon? Dawson City council thinks so
Is the time up for daylight time in Yukon?
This weekend, the Association of Yukon Communities (AYC) will vote on a resolution to encourage Yukon to drop the practice of "springing forward and falling back".
"I could go on about it forever," said Dawson City Coun. Kyla MacArthur, who's bringing the resolution forward on behalf of her town council.
"I think it started, as most things do, with anecdotal conversations about changing the clocks and, you know, moderate irritation — sometimes, depending on which part of the year it is — on having to do that," she said.
"Is that something in modern day society that we need to be doing?"
The benefits and drawbacks of daylight time have long been debated, and many parts of Canada forgo the seasonal time change.
New Zealand entomologist George Hudson started promoting the idea in 1895, partly with the hope he'd have more daylight hours to study insects in the field.
Daylight time was eventually adopted by Germany in 1916 as a way of conserving coal and fuel during the First World War. The United States, Britain and Canada followed soon after.
But some parts of Canada have held out. Most of Saskatchewan, as well as communities in B.C., northwestern Ontario, Quebec and Nunavut shun daylight time.
Up to the Yukon government
Kyla MacArthur admits it's "maybe not one of the more pressing issues that any of us are dealing with, in our own communities," but says it's worth having a discussion about.
"It's one of those things that people are either passionately for getting rid of, or it doesn't really affect them that much."
It would be up to the Yukon government to make the ultimate decision since the AYC can simply advocate.
Yukon Community Services Minister John Streicker says he's open to the idea.
"If they do vote for it, then we will try and have a look," he said.
"I think our response would be to go out and maybe talk to the Yukon science advisor, and try to get a little bit of evidence around it to understand what the pros and cons are."
The AYC's annual general meeting is being held in Faro this weekend.
