The

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British Nor ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

is geographically located in the

Mountain Time Zone The Mountain Time Zone of North America keeps time by subtracting seven hours from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) when standard time ( UTC−07:00) is in effect, and by subtracting six hours during daylight saving time ( UTC−06:00). The clo ...

(GMT−07:00). However, most of the province observes

Central Standard Time The North American Central Time Zone (CT) is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean Islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Central Standard Time (CST) is six hours behind Coordina ...

(CST) (GMT−06:00) year-round. As a result, it is effectively on

daylight saving time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typicall ...

(DST) year-round, as clocks are not turned back an hour in autumn when most jurisdictions return to standard time. The city of

Lloydminster Lloydminster is a city in Canada which has the unusual geographic distinction of straddling the provincial border between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city is incorporated by both provinces as a single city with a single municipal administrati ...

and several small communities around Lloydminster are the only exceptions to this arrangement. Located partly in Saskatchewan and partly in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...

, Lloydminster observes Mountain Time year-round, and it changes its clocks forward to Mountain Daylight Time each summer. The smaller communities around the city that also change time include Marsden, Neilburg, Marshall, Lashburn and Maidstone. Because of this, the time in Saskatchewan is the same in all parts of the province during summer months only. During the summer, clocks in the entire province match those of

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city an ...

and

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. During the winter, clocks in most of the province outside Lloydminster match those of

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

History

In 1912, the first law was passed that called for the use of

standard time Standard time is the synchronisation of clocks within a geographical region to a single time standard, rather than a local mean time standard. Generally, standard time agrees with the local mean time at some meridian that passes through the ...

. This law left the choice of

time zone A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between countries and their subdivisions instead of strictly following longitude, because it ...

up to the municipal government. The result was a patchwork of towns following either of the two neighbouring time zones— Mountain Standard Time (MST) or Central Standard Time—with or without daylight saving time. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, all municipalities were forced to adopt daylight saving time to save on fuel, but they were not forced to adopt the same time zone. In 1966, the Saskatchewan provincial government sought the help of a professional astronomer living in the province. The Milton Study (Earl R.V. Milton – A submission to the Government of Saskatchewan regarding time zones in Saskatchewan, 1966) a) concluded that Saskatchewan is in the Mountain Standard Time Zone, and b) suggested that the three prairie provinces (

, Saskatchewan and

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

) covered too much area to share a single time zone. In 1966, based on the Milton Study, the Saskatchewan government passed Chapter 85, to be known as the Time Act, 1966 (Statutes of Saskatchewan, 1966). The key points of this act were: *The eastern part of Saskatchewan will permanently be one hour ahead of Mountain Standard Time (the equivalent of Central Standard Time). *In the western part of Saskatchewan (i.e., all points west of

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

), municipal governments will still be able to choose what time zone to follow. The only cities that chose not to match the rest of Saskatchewan's time zone were in the southwest, in the areas around

and Swift Current. Part of Lloydminster spills into Alberta, which mandates the use of daylight saving time. In order to keep clocks synchronised throughout the city, Lloydminster chose to follow Alberta's practice of observing daylight saving time—effectively placing Lloydminster and the surrounding area on Mountain Time year-round. Swift Current and surrounding communities also observed Mountain Time until April 30, 1972, when they changed to match the rest of the province. With respect to some province-wide matters, such as provincial elections, Central Standard Time is effectively used province-wide. This means that during any provincial general election held when Daylight Saving Time is not in effect in Lloydminster, polls in that city will open and close an hour earlier local time compared to the rest of the province. For other matters (for example, liquor laws), the local time is always the effective time in Lloydminster. The town of Creighton which is across the border from the larger community of Flin Flon, Manitoba unofficially observes Central Daylight Time (CDT) with the rest of Manitoba. Unlike Lloydminster, Creighton's use of Central Daylight Time has no legal sanction at the provincial level. This has some interesting side effects—for example, liquor establishments in Creighton are able to stay open one hour later than establishments in Flin Flon whilst Central Daylight Time is in effect since a liquor establishment in Creighton can only be bound to observe Central Standard Time by provincial law. In the early part of the 21st century, discussion was renewed over whether Saskatchewan should change its clocks seasonally to be synchronised with other provinces' practice. By extension, the question was raised whether to return to the Mountain Time Zone (which would set clocks backward an hour in winter from their current observation), or to remain in the Central Time Zone (which would set clocks forward an hour in summer from their current observation, effectively enacting double Daylight Saving Time). Premier

Brad Wall Bradley John Wall (born November 24, 1965), is a Canadian former politician who served as the 14th premier of Saskatchewan from November 21, 2007 until February 2, 2018. He is the fourth longest-tenured premier in the province's history. His so ...

had pledged to hold a referendum in the 2011 provincial election, but he later decided against it, saying it would be a waste of money since polls consistently showed a strong majority favoured the status quo.

Saskatchewan Time Zone

Due to these discrepancies, many

computer program A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to Execution (computing), execute. Computer programs are one component of software, which also includes software documentation, documentation and oth ...

s and major

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

s offer a distinct "Saskatchewan" option when listing time zone options that automatically disables seasonal clock changes for Daylight Saving. In the tz database, both the America/Regina and America/Swift_Current entries result in Saskatchewan time. The current wording of the Time Act dictates "Central standard time shall be used and observed throughout the year", which is defined to be "the time that is six hours behind Greenwich time". With respect to

mean solar time Solar time is a calculation of the passage of time based on the position of the Sun in the sky. The fundamental unit of solar time is the day, based on the synodic rotation period. Two types of solar time are apparent solar time ( sundia ...

, however, this translates into Saskatchewan effectively being on Daylight Saving Time year-round. In the map above, Saskatchewan is the rectangle of Central Standard Time protruding into Mountain Standard Time in Canada, visually displaying that geographically, Saskatchewan is in the Mountain Time Zone.

References

*
The Saskatchewan Time System
Saskatchewan Ministry of Municipal Affairs {{DEFAULTSORT:Saskatchewan Daylight saving time in Canada Time in Canada

History

Saskatchewan Time Zone

See also

References