On Tue, 1 Sept 2026 at 22:48, Tim Parenti <[email protected]> wrote:
> Recordings of the Town Council meetings are generally posted to the town > YouTube page a day or so after. > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyFWZNwIL9o&t=1597s The timestamps for the relevant discussion and vote are 26:37 to 1:13:07, for those interested in the nitty-gritty of how these decisions affect local communities near time zone boundaries. While many pros and cons were discussed on both sides of the issue, it's clear the deliberation was not without its share of confusion in places. In particular, before calling for a motion putting forth a resolution, Golden Mayor Ron Oszust described the change as minimal, saying that "eight months of the year we're on Mountain Standard Time already… we're only talking about changing four months of the year. In my mind, that is small, …convenient, and appropriate." In actuality, the resolution as adopted will maintain the *status quo* on daylight hours in Golden only for the four-month winter period, while it will have the effect of moving an hour of evening light to the mornings for eight months each year beginning next March — affecting the entire summer and most of both "shoulder seasons". During discussion Councillor Kristi Cooper presented an opposing view based on personal experience, as she works in Pacific/BC time: "I am really used to thinking about their time, our time…and it is a strain to constantly be thinking back and forth about which time zone we're in. And in thinking that over other discussions I've had with community members, it became [apparent] that we are more connected to the Kootenays… The stress that I feel in working going through time zones, I feel like it's an undue hardship to our community…to put that stress on trying to constantly think about which time zone and where they're at… Moving [to] BC time…would make my life easier, but I understand that for our community, it makes sense to stay within the Kootenays, so I'm going to vote for Mountain Daylight Time." The Town has also put out a press release with official statements: https://www.golden.ca/town-hall/news-notices/council-supports-permanent-mountain-standard-time-utc-7-golden Proposed patch attached for review and testing. One fairly major concern was the name for the new zone identifier, as there are many other Goldens in the Americas; most notably, Golden, Colorado (pop. ~20,400) which is probably more broadly known than Golden, British Columbia (pop. ~4,000). Many ways we could disambiguate are either themselves ambiguous ("BC" also stands for "Baja California") or too long to use in a tz identifier component ("British Columbia" is 16 characters, our limit is 14), so we use "America/Brit_Columbia/Golden". Obviously, we will need a new release quite soon for this but, given that the short leadtime means that the usual downstream processes will already make it quite difficult to get this to consumer devices in time and this coming Monday is a holiday in both Canada and the US, we may end up waiting until just after the holiday in order to allow a short period for proper pre-release testing in the meantime. -- Tim Parenti
From 93ab7aa3bab1282f734ad9184aa867dd7d64b388 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Tim Parenti <[email protected]> Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2026 15:09:38 -0400 Subject: Golden, British Columbia adopts -07 year-round from 2026-11-01 The Town of Golden in southeastern British Columbia will fall back a final time on 2026-11-01 at 02:00, as it has formally adopted year-round -07, realigning with the bulk of BC and splitting its timekeeping practice from the neighboring Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK). * NEWS: Mention this. * northamerica, zone.tab, zone1970.tab, zonenow.tab (America/Brit_Columbia/Golden): New zone, like America/Edmonton until falling back to year-round -07 on 2026-11-01 02:00, except it omits DST in 1920 through 1923 and 1947. --- NEWS | 6 ++++++ northamerica | 32 +++++++++++++++++++++++--------- zone.tab | 1 + zone1970.tab | 1 + zonenow.tab | 3 +++ 5 files changed, 34 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-) diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS index 321f1711..05d85cd7 100644 --- a/NEWS +++ b/NEWS @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ Unreleased, experimental changes Briefly: Canada’s Northwest Territories moved to permanent -06 on 2026-08-21. + New zone for Golden, BC, moving from -07/-06 to -07 on 2026-11-01. Changes to future timestamps @@ -17,6 +18,11 @@ Unreleased, experimental changes by America/Edmonton, for which the equivalent change was released in 2026c. + The Town of Golden in southeastern British Columbia will rejoin the + bulk of the province on -07 after falling back a final time on + 2026-11-01 at 02:00, diverging from America/Edmonton and creating a + new zone America/Brit_Columbia/Golden. + Changes to past timestamps Colombia’s 1992-05-02 spring forward was at 00:00, not 24:00. diff --git a/northamerica b/northamerica index a4dfb2b8..9118ea0c 100644 --- a/northamerica +++ b/northamerica @@ -2074,11 +2074,10 @@ Zone America/Edmonton -7:33:52 - LMT 1906 Sep # -07 - accurate and clear in itself, but makes BC look odd vs neighbors # PacT - straightforward but novel abbreviation for Pacific Time -# From Tim Parenti (2026-08-21): +# From Tim Parenti (2026-09-03): # In the southeast of the province, the Regional District of East Kootenay -# (RDEK), Columbia Shuswap Regional District’s Electoral Area A (Rural Golden), -# and the Town of Golden have all historically been aligned with neighboring -# Alberta and use America/Edmonton. +# (RDEK) has historically been aligned with neighboring Alberta and uses +# America/Edmonton. # # Shortly after the BC provincial government announced its adoption of # year-round -07, the RDEK Board of Directors on 2026-03-13 initially voted @@ -2091,15 +2090,21 @@ Zone America/Edmonton -7:33:52 - LMT 1906 Sep # https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/what-time-is-it-in-the-east-kootenay-debate-9.7132624 # In the ensuing months, after Alberta announced and implemented its similar # shift to “permanent DST” (see above), RDEK coordinated a public survey across -# all of the relevant BC communities. The survey found 89% of respondents in -# favor of ending seasonal time changes, with 66% of that group preferring to -# remain aligned with Alberta time on year-round -06 instead of the rest of BC. +# all of the relevant BC communities, including the Town of Golden and +# Electoral Area A (Rural Golden) in the neighboring Columbia Shuswap Regional +# District (CSRD). The survey found 89% of respondents in favor of ending +# seasonal time changes, with 66% of that group preferring to remain aligned +# with Alberta time on year-round -06 instead of the rest of BC. # In line with those results, the RDEK Board adopted year-round -06 at its # 2026-08-14 meeting. # https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/east-kootenay-stops-changing-clocks-9.7308201 # -# At time of writing, Golden and CSRD Area A are yet to formalize their own -# decisions. +# By contrast, the Town of Golden decided at its meeting on 2026-09-01 to split +# its timekeeping practice from RDEK and rejoin BC on year-round -07 by a vote +# of 4–2. +# https://www.golden.ca/town-hall/news-notices/council-supports-permanent-mountain-standard-time-utc-7-golden +# At time of writing, the surrounding CSRD Area A is yet to formalize its own +# decision but is expected to follow. # Rule NAME FROM TO - IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Vanc 1918 only - Apr 14 2:00 1:00 D @@ -2129,6 +2134,15 @@ Zone America/Fort_Nelson -8:10:47 - LMT 1884 -8:00 Vanc P%sT 1987 -8:00 Canada P%sT 2015 Mar 8 2:00 -7:00 - MST +# There are too many Goldens elsewhere, so we need to disambiguate. +# 'BC' is too ambiguous and 'British Columbia' is too long, so we'll use +# 'America/Brit_Columbia/Golden'. +Zone America/Brit_Columbia/Golden -7:47:52 - LMT 1906 Sep + -7:00 Edm M%sT 1920 + -7:00 Canada M%sT 1972 + -7:00 Edm M%sT 1974 + -7:00 Canada M%sT 2026 Nov 1 2:00 + -7:00 - MST # For Creston see America/Phoenix. # Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon diff --git a/zone.tab b/zone.tab index 8ff275a2..abdda1ae 100644 --- a/zone.tab +++ b/zone.tab @@ -125,6 +125,7 @@ CA +5333-11328 America/Edmonton CST - AB, BC(E), NT(E), SK(W) CA +690650-1050310 America/Cambridge_Bay Mountain - NU (west) CA +682059-1334300 America/Inuvik CST - NT (west) CA +4916-12307 America/Vancouver MST - BC (most areas) +CA +5118-11658 America/Brit_Columbia/Golden MST - BC (Golden) CA +4906-11631 America/Creston MST - BC (Creston) CA +5546-12014 America/Dawson_Creek MST - BC (Dawson Cr, Ft St John) CA +5848-12242 America/Fort_Nelson MST - BC (Ft Nelson) diff --git a/zone1970.tab b/zone1970.tab index 0c6a15c5..fa4469cc 100644 --- a/zone1970.tab +++ b/zone1970.tab @@ -116,6 +116,7 @@ CA +5333-11328 America/Edmonton CST - AB, BC(E), NT(E), SK(W) CA +690650-1050310 America/Cambridge_Bay Mountain - NU (west) CA +682059-1334300 America/Inuvik CST - NT (west) CA +4916-12307 America/Vancouver MST - BC (most areas) +CA +5118-11658 America/Brit_Columbia/Golden MST - BC (Golden) CA +5546-12014 America/Dawson_Creek MST - BC (Dawson Cr, Ft St John) CA +5848-12242 America/Fort_Nelson MST - BC (Ft Nelson) CA +6043-13503 America/Whitehorse MST - Yukon (east) diff --git a/zonenow.tab b/zonenow.tab index 1c9b44b0..2a02547a 100644 --- a/zonenow.tab +++ b/zonenow.tab @@ -64,6 +64,9 @@ XX +4916-12307 America/Vancouver Mountain Standard (MST) - British Columbia (mos # -07 - MST XX +332654-1120424 America/Phoenix Mountain Standard (MST) - Arizona; western Mexico; Yukon # +# -07/-06 - MST/MDT (North America DST) until 2026-11-01 02:00; then MST +XX +5118-11658 America/Brit_Columbia/Golden Mountain Standard (MST) - BC (Golden) +# # -07/-06 - MST/MDT (North America DST) XX +394421-1045903 America/Denver Mountain (MST/MDT) - US; Mexico near US border; western Nunavut # -- 2.50.1 (Apple Git-155)
