On Sunday, November 1, many Canadians will turn their clocks back again. Others will leave them alone. British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba have moved to end seasonal clock changes. Saskatchewan has followed a different path: most of the province has observed Central Standard Time year-round since 1966.
Canada’s increasingly fragmented approach raises two questions. Should seasonal clock changes end? And which time should become permanent?
Ending the ritual is an appealing proposition. Choosing the right permanent time requires more thought, including about how Canadians buy, prepare and consume food.
Changing the clock does not create daylight. Standard time places sunrise and sunset an hour earlier on the clock than daylight saving time. The choice is about where daylight falls relative to work, school and household schedules.
For restaurants, cafés and grocers, those schedules matter. Breakfast before work, lunch between meetings and dinner after picking up the children represent distinct commercial opportunities. Moving daylight around those routines can influence when customers arrive—and potentially whether they arrive at all.
Research directly examining hospitality businesses does exist. A study published in Tourism and Hospitality Research, surveyed 41 small hospitality and tourism operators around Perth, Western Australia. The sample included wineries, bed-and-breakfasts, food factories and other businesses open to the public. The largest group reported no major business impact from daylight saving, but just over one-third considered it detrimental. Some operators identified changes in customer behaviour, working patterns and their own lifestyles.
That study offers a useful warning against assuming that brighter evenings benefit every business. It was, however, a small survey of operators’ perceptions across several business types. It cannot establish how Canadian restaurant revenues would respond to permanent standard time.
Transaction data provide another perspective. In its report, Shedding Light on Daylight Saving Time, the JPMorgan Chase Institute compared card spending in Los Angeles, which changes its clocks, with Phoenix, which does not. Following the autumn return to standard time, daily card spending per person in Los Angeles declined by 3.5 per cent relative to Phoenix. Grocery spending fell by almost six per cent, while restaurant spending changed considerably less. Much of the overall decline reflected fewer transactions.
For food businesses, that distinction matters. A darker evening may discourage an additional grocery stop without cancelling a dinner reservation. Shopping for milk and meeting friends at a restaurant are different decisions.
For grocers, the operational implications deserve attention. Prepared meals depend on matching production with customer traffic. If shopping patterns shift, stores may need to adjust staffing, cooking schedules and markdowns. Preparing rotisserie chickens for yesterday’s traffic pattern is an expensive way to discover that consumer habits have changed.
For restaurants, breakfast, lunch and dinner should be examined separately. Brighter mornings could conceivably support morning visits, while brighter evenings could encourage after-work outings. These are reasonable hypotheses to test. They are not established sales outcomes.
Restaurants Canada and grocery associations could contribute by examining hourly transactions, average spending and customer visits around clock changes. The industry needs evidence that distinguishes a temporary adjustment from a lasting change in demand.
There is also a nutritional dimension. A study published in the Journal of Marketing found that the spring transition to daylight saving time increased calorie consumption from largely unhealthy packaged snacks and reduced fitness-centre visits. The researchers did not find the same snack-consumption effect after the autumn transition. Their findings concern the disruption caused by changing the clocks, rather than a direct comparison of permanent time systems. Nevertheless, they show that the consequences extend beyond sleep.
The strongest case for permanent standard time rests on biological alignment. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine supports it because it better matches human circadian rhythms. Morning light helps synchronize the internal clock, while later evening light can delay sleep. In a northern country with limited winter daylight, darker mornings deserve serious consideration.
Financial coordination matters as well. Ontario and Quebec are closely connected to New York and the northeastern United States through financial markets, transportation and food distribution. Ontario passed legislation in 2020 to enable permanent daylight-saving time, although implementation has remained tied to coordination with neighbouring jurisdictions, particularly Quebec and New York. Predictable cross-border schedules have clear practical value.
But choosing a permanent system should involve more than a preference for bright evenings. Governments must weigh biological rhythms, commercial activity and regional coordination together.
Canada should move toward a coordinated end to seasonal clock changes, with permanent standard time as the objective and a practical transition developed with trading partners.
Canadians have spent enough time moving the hands. It is time for governments to make a decision.
