On Fri, 18 Sept 2026 at 18:51, James Bellaire <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 9/18/2026 6:06 PM, Tim Parenti via tz wrote: > > Worth noting that the new Act we expect will formalize this change states > that "[w]hen recommending that the reckoning of Manitoba Standard Time be > varied, the minister must have due regard for the applicable time zone > in neighbouring jurisdictions." > > Ontario has that wording in the currently active "Time Act" (R.S.O. 1990, > CHAPTER T.9) .... so perhaps a "legally acceptable" answer is to use the > existing Power to Vary to adjust western Ontario and NOT proclaim the 2020 > act. > Indeed, it seems that's what was done in the mid-2000s when the DST observance dates were most recently changed. https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90t09 After the US passed the *Energy Policy Act of 2005* along with its DST reforms, in 2006 Ontario issued Regulation 111/06 under the *Time Act*, "varying" the dates under this very authority in order to align with the US change ahead of 2007: https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/r06111 It was later cleaned up legislatively as part of a long omnibus *Good Government Act* in 2009: https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/s09033#sched2s73 So the question from Ontario's present perspective may well be whether that authority would allow for disparate variance in the two different sectors defined in the current Act, alongside the evaluation of whether it makes sense to do so. As it so happens, the *Time Amendment Act, 2020* that has been awaiting proclamation actually would repeal that power to vary, so it stands to reason that such a regulation under the existing Act might be one possibly simpler path forward there, at least in the immediate-term. -- Tim Parenti
