TORONTO — An Ontario MPP wants to end seasonal time changes and move to daylight time permanently.
“Ontarians are sick of this outdated practice that comes with serious consequences for our health,” Progressive Conservative MPP Jeremy Roberts said on Twitter. “My new bill would end this practice.”
Roberts introduced the private member’s bill — the Time Amendment Act or Bill 214 — at Queen’s Park Wednesday.
If passed, the legislation would let Ontario’s Attorney General make daylight time permanent, but only if Quebec and New York do, too.
“Past proposals to end the time change have been met with resistance given that there would be logistical difficulties making this change without Quebec and New York also following suit,” Roberts’ office said in a news release.
Watch: Sleep scientists say time changes should be eradicated.
One federal government MP said she supported the move.
“People are tired of watching the sun set while they are still at work,” Liberal MP Marie-France Lalonde said in the release.
“Permanent DST means people who work a standard day shift – and kids who go to school during the day – get more daylight at the end of the day, and it will make Ontario a safer and happier place.”
There are two places in Canada where residents already don’t change their clocks in the spring and fall: Yukon and Saskatchewan.
Yukon just made the change this past spring. The government said when it consulted the public, it received three times more responses than it got about legalizing cannabis.
“The response to this engagement speaks to the importance of this issue for people,” Yukon Premier Sandy Silver said at the time.