All, Paul and I have discussed the recent news out of Alberta and the Northwest Territories in Canada and how that affects our plans for upcoming releases of tzdata. *tl;dr We are inclined to cut a release with the changes for BC shortly, while we wait for AB and NWT legislation to come through and to determine where areas such as the Regional District of East Kootenay (Cranbrook, BC) will land.* To be clear, we were already aiming to release for BC any day now, but the recent AB/NWT news did prompt another check and balancing of competing priorities. A detailed summary of our understanding of where things currently stand throughout western Canada follows: *British Columbia*'s premier, David Eby, announced a shift from UTC−8/−7 to year-round UTC−7 for the bulk of the province (America/Vancouver) on 2 March 2026, pursuant to Order in Council 63 of 2026, joining other areas of BC (America/Dawson_Creek, America/Fort_Nelson) which had already observed year-round UTC−7 and are thus unaffected. The order took effect on 9 March and affects wall clock times from 1 November 2026. *Alberta*'s premier, Danielle Smith, announced in an interview on Monday 20 April 2026 a planned shift from UTC−7/−6 to year-round UTC−6, aligning the province (America/Edmonton) with Saskatchewan's long-standing practice, with legislation to be introduced "this week" as part of an omnibus bill. Order papers for Alberta's Legislative Assembly suggest the referenced bill may be Bill 31, the *Red Tape Reduction Statutes Amendment Act, 2026*, but the Assembly rose before it could be formally introduced today (Wednesday) so no text is yet available. Following another sitting tomorrow (Thursday), Alberta's Legislative Assembly is scheduled to adjourn for a constituency week before sitting again from 4 to 14 May and then adjourning to late October. So, if the proposed change is envisioned to take effect from 1 November to imitate BC, then the bill would likely need to wind its way through the legislative process within the next few weeks. *Border areas* within BC, such as most of the Regional District of East Kootenay (Cranbrook) and eastern portions of the Regional District of Central Kootenay and the Columbia–Shuswap Regional District, currently remain with the *status quo* of UTC−7/−6. In particular, RDEK had previously said on 14 March that it would join the rest of BC on year-round UTC−7, but walked that back on 10 April while committing to a "public consultation process". Attached to the agenda for the 10 April RDEK Board meeting were 189 pages of public comment opposed to the March proposal and 66 pages in support. Given Alberta's recent announcement, it seems highly likely, then, that the region will ultimately choose one single year-round time or the other; if sticking with AB and UTC−6, no new zone would be needed, while if rejoining BC and UTC−7, a new zone would be needed. Meanwhile, any prolonged regional inaction could require our action in creating a new zone anyway, so we will need to keep a close eye on what this area decides and when. Upcoming RDEK Board meetings are scheduled for 8 May and 12 June. Similarly, Saskatchewan's *Time Act* may need legislative tweaks to better handle the area around Lloydminster, which straddles the border between AB and SK and has thus generally followed Alberta, but here it is much more reasonable to assume that the end result will ultimately be year-round UTC−6, once those two provinces are so aligned. Saskatchewan's Legislative Assembly is presently scheduled to sit until 14 May before similarly adjourning to late October. https://www.sasktoday.ca/provincial-news/implications-for-sask-of-alberta-mo... *Northwest Territories*' premier, RJ Simpson, announced later on Monday 20 April 2026 that NWT (represented by America/Edmonton and America/Inuvik) would follow AB in shifting from UTC−7/−6 to year-round UTC−6, but gave no specific timeline, stating only that the NWT government will "begin the necessary planning", which includes "developing a clear timeline [and] working with partners". Again, assuming this goes forward alongside AB, no new zone will be needed, but legislative inaction could necessitate America/Yellowknife becoming its own zone rather than a link. The NWT Legislative Assembly has committee work scheduled in the next two weeks, 27 April through 8 May, and next sits from 27 May through 4 June before also adjourning to late October, so it may be some weeks before legislative details emerge there. * * * In short, because the AB and NWT changes are yet to be legislated and may take several more weeks to be finalized, it makes sense for us to wait on those and batch them, so as to also give more time to see how the various border areas react. Based on legislative calendars, it seems reasonable to think that any legislation which is to happen in these areas will happen by mid-June if it is to take effect for November 2026. In the meantime, a release now-ish with the changes for BC will allow those to start propagating and downstream vendors/projects to begin grappling with their various implementation details, including concepts such as "Pacific Time (US & Canada)" no longer meaning what they once did, before a follow-up release with AB and NWT changes hopefully by sometime in June similarly affects additional regions and concepts. Hopefully this ongoing situation is illustrative as to why we are extremely hesitant to promise any particular release timing. Any possible forward guidance we could give would always come with the asterisk "unless something else comes up". -- Tim Parenti