e-KNOW Editorial

By Ian Cobb

If you’ve ever wished to see a clear and immediate example of how little the Lower Mainland/Vancouver Island centric B.C. government thinks of the East Kootenay, ponder yesterday’s announcement of the impending permanent daylight saving time adoption.

The government press release was all crowing ballyhoo about the joys of this decision, declaring it will “improve people’s overall health, reduce disruptions for families, simplify scheduling and provide an extra hour of evening light during the winter months.” Except for the folks in the East Kootenay (and to a lesser extent in the northeast Peace River area).

“We have heard the overwhelming majority of people in B.C. who want to end the back-and-forth of seasonal time changes,” said Niki Sharma, Attorney General.

Ah, the good old “vast majority” fall back – a ploy used by Victoria to shove aside rural British Columbia when it wants or needs something. It’s an especially NDP government thing to do.

It’s easy as pie to convince the much heavier populated western half of the province to punt the annual time change kerfuffle because it is time we dropped this nonsensical practice.

But as usual, the tall foreheads playing with our East Kootenay tax dollars forget we live in Mountain Time – a constant and forever omission stemming from Victoria and Vancouver. And when they do, they laugh it off because we are quaint and far away in our little mountain towns.

It’s not always what you do, Victoria; it’s how you do it.

Along with the announcement that time changes are a thing of the past, for everywhere except the East Kootenay (as it should have been clearly stated in the ChatGPT created government press release), was a sly old download to local municipal governments.

Not only must our municipal governments wrestle with the items that they exist for to wrestle with, such as local infrastructure, utilities and services, they must now sort out what time zone we should dwell in. That along with finding answers for provincial government created problems such as homelessness, seniors housing and mental/physical health services. Don’t get us started on the province’s deer!

The discussions among local governments will be interesting and there will be arguments to be made to keep the status quo or shift to Pacific Time.

For local travellers heading west, it’s always nice to gain that hour near Yahk.

For those heading from Alberta to B.C., it would be a sweet bonus to gain that hour when heading to the East Kootenay for the weekend. It might turn out to be a small boost to tourism.

Then again, it would force East Kootenay folks to adjust their travel schedule to Alberta. Not a huge inconvenience.

My guess is local government officials will vote to adopt Pacific Time, putting us on equal time footing with the rest of the province.

At the end of the day, having the East and Central Kootenay in the same time zone makes sense, too.

Let the arguments for and against commence.

And Victoria, please take heed, even just for once; we East Kootenay folks will likely adopt your time zone so how about reciprocating and giving us more time than token gestures and empty words in vague press releases?

That behaviour is well past due.

– Ian Cobb is e-KNOW editor and owner

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