Thursday, October 20, 2005

Finally some really good news...

Also, can school children vote? So why the heck are we listening to them?
Longer daylight savings in 2007Move to lengthen daylight saving time by four weeks will bring province into line with U.S.
CURTIS RUSHSTAFF REPORTER THESTAR.COMOntario will enjoy about four more weeks of daylight saving time after the government passed the regulation today in the Legislature.
The announcement was made by Attorney General Michael Bryant that, beginning in 2007, daylight saving time will start on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November.
Similar changes were recently adopted in the United States.
Daylight saving now starts the first Sunday in April and ends the last Sunday in October.
Part of the reason for the move, McGuinty told the Toronto Star after meeting with the editorial board this morning, is that studies show that children are most at risk from being hit by a car in the evening dark than in the morning dark.
"We've learned that there's pretty well overwhelming support for moving in step with the U.S. government," McGuinty said.
Earlier this year, the government appointed parliamentary assistant David Zimmer to conduct public hearings.
"My single biggest concern had to be with school children in the morning," McGuinty said. "But Zimmer informs me that the safety people say the greatest risk for kids is at the end of the day when there are more drivers and more distractions and people are more tired."
The committee led by Zimmer reviewed public safety, energy, trade, and other issues, and consulted with stakeholders and other levels of government.
McGuinty said he wouldn't be surprised if other provinces follow suit.
"My sense is that many of the provinces were waiting to see what Ontario was going to do."
There was concern among various stakeholders and interest groups that if Ontario didn't move in tandem with the U.S., this province would be out of sync with U.S. time for airlines, manufacturers, the financial sector and television programming.
“It is important to maintain Ontario’s competitive advantage by coordinating time changes with our major trading partner, and harmonizing our financial, industrial, transportation and communications links,” Bryant said in a release. "This is in the best interest of Ontario.”
Daylight saving time in Ontario is governed by the Time Act, legislation that is the responsibility of the Attorney General.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

this whole thing is rediculous! hasn't someone pointed out that we're *already* in a different time zone from chicago or houston or vancouver?!? we seem to have gotten along just fine up til now. if you want to change daylight savings time, that's fine by me -- but don't say it's for some stupid reason like airlines, since they regularly do things like fly across 15 time zones and the international date line, land before they took off, then turn around and do it all again!

besides, wouldn't the potential ontario-u.s. disruptions be much less than the ontario-canada disruptions if the rest of canada desides to stay the same?

Jennifer said...

I'm so with you Dan, all the reasons one way or the other are stupid. Airlines and school children and everyone else will get over it. The important thing is that we get to be on daylight savings time for longer! We need to save all the daylight we can. I don't even know why we go off daylight savings time in the winter anyway. I want it to be bright as late as possible at all times, who cares if it's light in the morning? Not I, I want to go home from work when there's still a little sun left.