Western Canada has stopped changing its clocks

On 1 November most of North America put its clocks back an hour. British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba didn’t. All three now stay on their summer time all year, and so do the Northwest Territories. If a clock for Vancouver or Calgary has looked an hour out since, this is why.

What changed

Each made its summer time permanent this year:

• British Columbia (Vancouver) keeps UTC-7 all year, where it used to fall back to UTC-8 in winter. Its last change was on 8 March, and the new time became permanent the next day.
• Alberta (Calgary, Edmonton) keeps UTC-6, where it used to fall back to UTC-7. It made the change permanent on 18 June, and the Northwest Territories followed on 21 August.
• Manitoba (Winnipeg) keeps UTC-5 from 31 October, where it used to fall back to UTC-6. The parts of northwestern Ontario that share its time do the same.

Yukon made the same move in 2020, and Saskatchewan hasn’t changed its clocks in decades. Ontario, Quebec, Nunavut and the Atlantic provinces still change theirs, and so does most of the US.

What it means for time differences

From March to November, nothing is different. From November to March, these places are an hour further ahead than they used to be:

• Vancouver is an hour ahead of Seattle and the rest of the US West Coast. They share a clock again from March.
• Calgary and Edmonton match Regina all year, and are an hour ahead of Denver in winter.
• Winnipeg matches Toronto and New York in winter, and Chicago in summer.
• From the UK, Vancouver is 7 hours behind London in winter instead of 8, and Winnipeg 5 instead of 6.

The trade-off is later winter sunrises. Around Christmas the sun won’t rise until about 9:10 in Vancouver, 9:25 in Winnipeg, 9:40 in Calgary and 9:50 in Edmonton. Each city’s page shows today’s sunrise and sunset.

If you keep in touch with anyone in Vancouver, Calgary or Winnipeg, World Time Widget puts their time next to yours, in the app and on your Home Screen and Lock Screen.

In World Time Widget

Most clocks in World Time Widget were right all along, because the app uses your iPhone’s own time zone rules, and Apple has updated those. Two weren’t. Our Vancouver and Calgary clocks borrowed the time zone of a place that still changes its clocks, so from 1 November they showed an hour behind. Thank you to everyone who wrote in about it.

Version 2026.16, out on 7 November, puts them right, and the clocks you’ve already added fix themselves. It rolls out gradually over a week, so if you don’t have it yet, update World Time Widget from the App Store. Then check two things:

• Renamed a Vancouver or Calgary clock? The update can’t tell it was one, so add the city again and delete the old clock.
• Widget showing a different clock? Touch and hold the widget, tap Edit Widget and pick the city again.

If a clock for Edmonton, Winnipeg or anywhere else in western Canada still looks an hour out, check your iPhone is up to date in Settings › General › Software Update.