Manitoba's long public engagement survey on DST, which ran from late-May through the end of August, has concluded. At the time it started, I had expressed some hope that the long engagement period would mean that they would not be rushing into any changes before 2027: https://lists.iana.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/QSABAZELHHCDDTOFRFEAIBU7Q3JJ6PJK/
Well now the results are in… and reports are that the province will NOT be forming the "Prairie time zone" that Premier Wab Kinew had publicly opined about, and will instead be adopting year-round UTC−5 on just about 6 weeks' notice: https://news.gov.mb.ca/news/?item=75397 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/daylight-time-manitoba-9.7347844 >From the government release: "A total of 92 per cent of Manitobans surveyed wanted to see an end to seasonal time changes. A majority of Manitobans (58 per cent) preferred to stay on permanent DST, while 34 per cent voted to eliminate the time change but stay on standard time." While other options may have required legislative action, it appears the *Official Time Amendment Act*, assented to 30 May 2023, allows for this, but I am still seeking confirmation on whether that is indeed the mechanism that will be used. This just broke a few hours ago (around 09:20 UTC−5), but obviously we will need a new tz release quite soon to reflect this. America/Panama is the main workaround on year-round UTC−5 in the interim until the necessary changes to America/Winnipeg propagate downstream. -- Tim Parenti
