Following up on Northwest Territories, literally. On 20 April 2026, Premier R.J. Simpson announced a shift to year-round UTC−6 to match Alberta's change announced the same day: https://lists.iana.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/thread/WNSESMLRPJ6FCBS2VEGF7A76T2GWRYQ6/
Last month, James Bellaire helpfully pointed out that Bill 13 of the NWT 19th Legislative Assembly's 2nd Session, assented to 31 March 2021, already provides the regulatory framework for the territory to match Alberta's shift to year-round UTC−6 without further legislation: https://lists.iana.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/H3LPJMX6TCBA3FVUKODHJP76RHH73KP7/ That bill can be viewed here: https://www.ntlegislativeassembly.ca/sites/default/files/legacy/bill_13_-_reprint_-_interpretation_a.pdf As there has been little news on this since, I recently reached out to the Government of Northwest Territories (GNWT) to see whether there was any update on when or how we might expect to see this change finalized, initially in the hopes that we might have been able to prepare NWT's change for release alongside Alberta's, given the ties between the regions and their tz identifiers. Paul and I have since been put in direct correspondence with some staffers in the Northwest Territories Department of Justice responsible for implementing the change. Based on that private correspondence, we have been advised that, while the legal process is indeed still moving forward and the intent is to have year-round UTC−6 brought into force by 1 November 2026 when clocks would otherwise "fall back" under existing practice, the official registration of the expected regulation is not presently anticipated until sometime in September 2026. We are expecting to receive formal documentation from GNWT at that time, which we will bring to this list as able in advance of, and alongside, public-facing artifacts. Since publication in the Northwest Territories Gazette <https://www.justice.gov.nt.ca/en/northwest-territories-gazette/#gn-filebrowse-0:/2026/> only occurs monthly and can lag registration by several months, we have been asked not to wait for this step. Given this information, Northwest Territories' change seems like enough of a done deal at this point that it's worth incorporating into the development repository now with the assurances we have; a proposed patch is attached. Since timekeeping in much of the territory hasn't diverged from Alberta since before 1970, most of it is already covered by America/Edmonton (or through its America/Yellowknife link), for which Alberta's change was already released in 2026c on 8 July. As such, this change only affects America/Inuvik.. So we will need to prepare a new release soon for Inuvik. Meanwhile, the regional survey in southeastern BC has a little over a week to go before it ends on 3 August, although we do not have a precise timeline for when the decisions there will be finalized. (Although mostly conducted by email, much thanks to the various GNWT staffers for both routing and taking my call, as it were.) -- Tim Parenti
0001-Northwest-Territories-moves-to-permanent-06-on-2026-.patch
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