Bill 31 passed Second Reading yesterday, Tuesday 5 May 2026. https://www.assembly.ab.ca/assembly-business/bills/bill?billinfoid=12128&fro... During debate, NDP MLA Marlin Schmidt joked about bringing forward an amendment to "make sure that Calgary is three hours behind Edmonton so that if I leave my house in Edmonton at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, I arrive in Calgary at 3 o’clock in the afternoon and I haven’t wasted any time driving to Calgary, which I normally would do if I were driving to Calgary," before "urg[ing] the government to consider adopting a time zone that reflects Alberta’s unique culture. We don’t want to be on B.C. time. We don’t want to be on Saskatchewan time. Perhaps we should split the difference and maybe be on Saskatchewan plus a half hour." (*sic*; folks here would probably refer to the resulting UTC−6:30 as "Saskatchewan minus a half hour") Debate is recorded in the *Alberta Hansard*, 31st Legislature Second Session, pages 1711–16 (5 May 2026, PDF pages 23–28): https://docs.assembly.ab.ca/LADDAR_files/docs/hansards/han/legislature_31/se... Order papers indicate that the bill is expected to move into the Committee of the Whole as soon as tomorrow (Thursday) for further review and proposal of any amendments. CBC reports that, facing criticism that the bill ignores a narrowly-defeated 2021 referendum on the matter, "the government decided not to put it to a vote again, largely because it felt its hands were tied" between British Columbia's recent change and Saskatchewan's long-standing practice. Although Alberta has several other referendum questions scheduled for a vote on 19 October 2026, this would not leave much time before the fall clock change. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said "if she's wrong" about Albertans preferring later sunrises and sunsets, "it's possible the government could put the decision to a vote in 2027." https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-daylight-time-change-daniell... -- Tim Parenti On Thu, 23 Apr 2026 at 17:10, Tim Parenti <tim@timtimeonline.com> wrote:
On Mon, 20 Apr 2026 at 16:03, Chris Walton via tz <tz@iana.org> wrote:
Yes; it seems like Alberta will likely adopt year-round UTC-06. If it happens, the entire province would be on permanent Central Standard Time (same as Saskatchewan). This has not been legislated yet, so it is too early to make any database changes.
Bill 31, the *Red Tape Reduction Statutes Amendment Act, 2026*, was introduced in Alberta's Legislative Assembly today (Thursday 23 April) for First Reading.
https://www.assembly.ab.ca/assembly-business/bills/bill?billinfoid=12128&fro...
As an omnibus bill, the text covers many topics, but the portion pertaining to timekeeping begins on printed page 15 (PDF page 17):
https://docs.assembly.ab.ca/LADDAR_files/docs/bills/bill/legislature_31/sess...
It would repeal the *Daylight Saving Time Act* in the Revised Statues of Alberta 2000 Chapter D-5: https://kings-printer.alberta.ca/documents/Acts/D05.pdf …and substitutes a new chapter with language that closely parallels the original. The new title is the *Official Time Act* and would be numbered Chapter O-5.7.
As expected, the bill would establish a standard time of UTC−6 without replacing the language previously used to effectuate DST. Although the *Calgary Herald* article reported that Premier Danielle Smith had expressed preference for the name "Alberta Time", the bill uses the term "official time", while allowing the Lieutenant Governor in Council to make regulations "prescribing a term other than 'official time' by which official time may be known".
Similarly to the 2019 legislation in British Columbia which was effectuated by an Order in Council in March 2026, the bill does not specify a transition time itself, but rather delegates regulatory authority to the Lieutenant Governor in Council to "provid[e] for any transitional matters arising under this Act" and amend other regulations to conform. The relevant section "comes into force on Proclamation", so we would expect an Order in Council to bring about those implementation details sometime after Royal Assent.
-- Tim Parenti