On 2026-09-22 16:58, Guy Harris via tz wrote:
Pacific Coast Time? Pacific Canadian TIme?
Officially it's short for just "Pacific Time", the legal name for the time zone in BC. As I understand it,
the BC government also considered "PacT" but decided "PCT" was better. I also understand that PCT
was inspired by the phrase "Pacific Coast Time", your first guess.
I don't know whether the abbreviation is officially short for "PaCific Time" or for
"PacifiC Time" (and I suspect nobody in the BC government cares :-).
I installed the attached proposed patch to the commentary to try to document
this better.
diff --git a/northamerica b/northamerica
index 41ced6fa..e80a7a6f 100644
--- a/northamerica
+++ b/northamerica
@@ -2109,13 +2109,13 @@ Zone America/Edmonton -7:33:52 - LMT 1906 Sep
# on March 8 will be the last time change, ending twice-yearly clock changes.”
# https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2026AG0013-000209
#
-# From Paul Eggert (2026-07-02):
+# From Paul Eggert (2026-09-23):
# The law says that 21 hours after the usual 2026-03-08 02:00 switch from
-# PST to PDT, the next day inaugurates the new standard time Pacific Time,
+# PST to PDT, the next day inaugurated the new standard time Pacific Time,
# i.e., just one clock change but two name changes separated by 21 hours.
# PT, the obvious abbreviation for Pacific Time, is one letter too short
# to conform to TZDB’s (and POSIX’s) [-+[:alnum:]]{3,6} requirements.
-# I asked the BC government for advice, with no response. For now, do this:
+# For now, do this:
# 1. As a temporary hack, pretend that the BC law takes effect
# not on 2026-03-09 at 00:00, but on 2026-11-01 at 02:00.
# This pretense works around a limitation in CLDR 48.1 (2026-01-08),
@@ -2133,10 +2133,10 @@ Zone America/Edmonton -7:33:52 - LMT 1906 Sep
# and already used in parts of BC and in Yukon
# PDT - almost as software-friendly, but confusing because it implies
# it is DST and is paired with PST, whereas PT is standard time
-# PST - straightforward but even more confusing,
-# and will likely break much software that assumes PST is -08
# -07 - accurate and clear in itself, but makes BC look odd vs neighbors
-# PacT - straightforward but novel abbreviation for Pacific Time
+# PCT - as I understand it, inspired by the phrase “Pacific Coast Time”
+# though legally it’s “Pacific Time”; suggested by the BC government
+# <https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2026CITZ0009-001073>
# From Tim Parenti (2026-08-21):
# In the southeast of the province, the Regional District of East Kootenay
