The Regional District of East Kootenay has chosen to ditch seasonal time changes and align its clock with those in Alberta year-round. Brendan Miller/Postmedia file

Article content

Lawmakers in southeastern B.C. have sprung ahead of their wider region in opting to do away with seasonal time changes.

Article content

By a board vote of 12-3, Regional District of East Kootenay says it’s decided it’s changed its clocks for the last time and will permanently observe the current Mountain daylight time.

Article content

Article content

The district includes the Columbia Valley, which is immensely popular with Albertans and is headquartered in Cranbrook.

Article content

Article content

That decision came after 89 per cent of 14,000 survey respondents supported the move, said the district, which added two-thirds of respondents chose to stick with mountain daylight savings time.

Article content

Article content

“This issue has garnered an incredible amount of passion and engagement from the public and that speaks to how much it matters to people,” RDEK Board Chair, Rob Gay, said in a press release Friday.

Article content

“We had extensive participation in the survey, and the results were very clear. Over the past few months, the directors have also done their own research and engagement with residents.”

Article content

Without that decision, the district would have moved its clocks back an hour on Nov. 1 and sprung ahead by 60 minutes the following March.

Article content

That decision brings the area in line with most of the rest of B.C., with the provincial government choosing to drop the twice-annual clock changes last March to establish what they’ve branded Pacific Time.

Article content

That left out areas of the province covered the mountain time zone, with the district saying they’ve been working with other local leaders in the province’s east to create consistency in their clock observance.

Article content

Article content

The board said it will “share its decision with neighbouring local governments in Golden and Columbia Shuswap Regional District (Area A) as they will need to independently determine their time observance.”

Article content

Article content

One Invermere business owner who didn’t want to be named said she voted for permanent daylight savings time because it would bring their clocks in line with Alberta, from where they draw many of their visitors.

Article content

“I think it’s a great thing, there’s more light at the end of the day and it’s nicer for people from Alberta who won’t have to change their clocks,” she said.

Article content

“Also, a lot of people here go to Alberta for things like doctor’s appointments and it helps with that.”

Article content

The Radium Hot Springs Pools are the main attraction in Radium Hot Springs. Photo by Andrew Penner

Article content

The owner of the Motel Tyrol in Radium said he welcomes the regional government’s move, calling the changing of clocks an annoyance.

Article content

“I’m all for it because changing is ridiculous, it doesn’t make any difference in my day except causing all sorts of problems,” said Michael McRobb.

Article content

But a Cranbrook resident said he didn’t bother voting on the issue, calling it a relatively petty distraction.

Article content

“I think it’s funny people think about this so much rather than other things,” said Trevor Chaney, who works in a bookstore in the town 390 kilometres southwest of Calgary. “There’s the same number of hours in the day.”