The theory file says: "Use abbreviations that are in common use among English-speakers, e.g., “EST” for Eastern Standard Time in North America."
*PCT* is commonly used among English-speakers, but it generally refers to either *Percent* or *Pacific Crest Trail*. It is not in common use when referring to time zones. It still baffles my mind to think that the provinces and territories feel they must come up with new unique names and abbreviations when referring to common time zones offsets that have existed for well over 100 years. It is no different than arbitrarily assigning a new name to Lake Ontario; it makes some sort of political statement without being at all practical. -chris On Fri, Sep 18, 2026 at 3:03 PM brian.laframboise--- via tz <[email protected]> wrote: > Yesterday BC announced PCT as its official abbreviation for BC's Pacific > Time: > https://archive.news.gov.bc.ca/releases/news_releases_2024-2028/2026CITZ0009-001073.htm > > I work for a company, based in BC, that schedules appointments globally. > We show time zone abbreviations in our app. > > We're currently concerned about the potential confusion of BC users seeing > "MST" on times shown to them starting Nov 1. Specifically we're worried > that a BC user will see MST and think "MST? M is mountain time. That's > Alberta. Alberta is an hour ahead, so this time off by an hour" and miss an > appointment. > > Showing PCT instead of MST could help us mitigate this issue until we can > update our systems to handle this better (possibly by omitting > abbreviations and showing the timezone identifier instead). > > That said, I am aware of the recent decision on the non-inclusion of ABT > for Alberta: > https://lists.iana.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/thread/EOSYV7EGLBDW7YPKO5NNLQZ2MT7643BL/ > > My questions: > > 1. Will IANA update the abbreviation for relevant timezones (such as > America/Vancouver) from MST to PCT by Nov 1? > 2. If not, can you provide guidance on when we could expect such an > update, if ever? > > Thanks for your time. >
