On 2026-10-02 13:39, James Bellaire via tz wrote:
On 10/2/2026 12:18 PM, Brian Inglis via tz wrote:
Any reporting on those details seems to be very local, so it appears unlikely
anyone elsewhere in Canada will be using those names or abbreviations.
At this point I see no reason not to use the choices already in 2026e and rely
on the National Research Council Canada [1] (as previously linked) for any changes.
NRCC does not conform completely to tzdata (shifting Saskatchewan into "MDT" and
Yukon into "PDT" with notes on their 2022 maps). But it is better than creating
additional zones just because of a naming difference or foisting "ABT" on NWT
because the zone city is in Alberta. There was some pushback in the legislative
discussions in Alberta about being on "Saskatchewan Time" (Alberta is not
Saskatchewan). SK does not use "SKT" (they have CST and people forget that they
started as a MST area).
For places like RDEK and Golden it would be clearer to the world if they used
"Alberta Time" (or "Calgary Time") instead of creating a new name that people
outside of the region would not know.
I have lived near a time zone line most of my life and when setting meetings I
specify "Chicago Time" or "New York Time" when talking to someone out of area
since "Indiana Time" required them to think more. That practice going back to a
time when Indiana didn't follow DST and the practice continues today since some
people don't know the time zone lines. (My more technical contacts accept EST/
EDT/CST/CDT etc.)
Either province or big city names will become most common in conversation. I
expect NRCC to keep the long standing abbreviations, even if they don't match
the conversational common wording.
(And if the naming is an issue, think of MST as the other side of the rocky
mountains, CST as central Canada and EST as the eastern half of Canada. It kind
of works.)
Really only in the US if you look at the longitudes and solar times.
We should all have been a time zone further west than the US time zones.
Now we are another time zone further east and 2 hours from solar times!
[1] https://nrc.canada.ca/en/certifications-evaluations-standards/canadas-
official-time/time-zones-daylight-saving-time
They still have not dropped the NT or MB time changes in the table, nor realized
SK is now the same as NT and AB, and all should look the same.
I will reach out and point out the continuing discrepancies.
--
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis Calgary, Alberta, Canada
La perfection est atteinte Perfection is achieved
non pas lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à ajouter not when there is no more to add
mais lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à retrancher but when there is no more to cut
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
