On Sat, 3 Oct 2026 at 16:07, Brian Inglis via tz <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Silly season should be over by ... December? > > Time changes have to be done by November 1! In a *de facto* sense, yes, whatever will or won't happen on the ground on 1 November must tautologically have been decided (or defaulted by lack of decision) no later than 1 November. But there is a decent chance we may see a hasty and/or *post hoc* legal patch in northwestern Ontario… It seems local surveys in the area have all polled at above 90% supporting the "Manitoba model" of year-round UTC−5 (as opposed to the "Thunder Bay" model of EST/EDT). https://www.nwonewswatch.com/local-journalism-initiative-lji/vast-majority-want-to-end-time-changes-mayor-12838025 Greg Rickford, the Member of Provincial Parliament for Kenora–Rainy River, plans to take this "clear and unanimous decision" to the Attorney General and says "necessary legislative changes will follow" without elaborating further on details. Of course, the existing *Time Act, RSO 1990* allows the Lieutenant Governor in Council to make regulations varying timekeeping non-legislatively, so it seems most likely that that's what Rickford meant. A good deal less likely… Ontario's *Time Amendment Act, 2020* could theoretically be "partially proclaimed", but that looks much more complicated based on how it's written. While proclaiming sections only for certain geographical areas is almost certainly not possible, activating §1(2) of the new Act alone could redefine the standard offset in the area west of the 90°W meridian independently of affecting areas east. As long as the process of other replacement legislation is finished before DST should start again on 14 March 2027, it could perhaps act as a (clunky) stop-gap to get that region formally on UTC−5 in the meantime. Such a scenario would avoid activating §1(3), as that would repeal the entire DST infrastructure province-wide and the Lieutenant Governor's power to vary altogether. But I imagine leaving something half-proclaimed while it gets replaced would not be particularly desirable. Lastly, if new legislation is actually needed sooner than later, the Legislative Assembly has only three sitting days between now and 1 November… so it's also quite possible *de facto* observance may simply deviate from *de jure* until the legal processes can catch up. -- Tim Parenti
