Talk:Time in British Columbia

New article

This article is about the time zone that the British Columbia government created and calls "Pacific Time". It is similar to but not the same as "Pacific Time Zone" or "Pacific Daylight Time". In part, it is the political designation of the time zone.

One reason that the contents of this article is not in the "Pacific Time Zone " article is that there is political history that would be unrelated to that article.Vanguard10 (talk) 18:02, 3 March 2026 (UTC)

Requested move 4 March 2026

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. Submitted to technical moves, should be done shortly (non-admin closure) Jacksonvil (talk|contribs) 06:40, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

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Pacific Time (British Columbia) → Time in British Columbia – For consistency with Time in Saskatchewan (which has a "Saskatchewan Time Zone" section), Time in Nunavut, and general handling of such topics by province (see Template:Canada topic and its usage in Time in Canada). The proposed title is currently a redirect to Time in Canada.

I recognize there is technically a distinction between the provincially-named time zone to be used in most of B.C., and the use of time zones in B.C. more generally (including regions sticking with MDT/MST), but I don't think there is enough content to justify two separate articles, and in that light it would make most sense to have one that is (a) named consistently with other similar topics, and (b) the less ambiguous option. (I realize Newfoundland Time Zone exists while "Time in Newfoundland and Labrador" currently does not, but feel the former is sufficiently unambiguous while B.C.'s new "Pacific Time" is not.) — stickguy (:^›)— || talk || 18:53, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose. Per the reliable sources, this is a new time zone. That is not the case in Saskatchewan (which uses the Central Time Zone) or Nunavut (which encompasses three different time zones.) 162 etc. (talk) 21:25, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose. This is a new time zone name designated by the Province of British Columbia. Furthermore, it's a good topic for an article because of the soon to be confusing proliferation of "Pacific Time". For example, if someone in Los Angeles is emailing a colleague or client in New York, she or he might write "let's meet by Zoom at 10 am Pacific Time", but this would create confusion with those in Vancouver. Are we meeting at Pacific Time, meaning in BC, or Pacific Time, meaning in California. This is the practical reason for the current title, to teach readers of the difference and history. From a Wikipedia policy standpoint, the current name meets the multiple policies of WP:TITLE, including WP:UCRN, WP:NPOVTITLE, and WP:PRECISE. Therefore, the current title with no renaming meets the practical needs and the official Wikipedia policy needs. Vanguard10 (talk) 21:41, 4 March 2026 (UTC)
• Agree. Pacific Time is not a new time zone. The BC government hijacked the name Pacific Time and attempted to apply it to an existing zone that has been called Mountain Standard Time for the last 143 years. The existence of a page titled "Pacific Time (British Columbia)" only fuels the confusion that the BC government created. This page should be called "Time in British Columbia" to be consistent with other similar pages. The page should document that fact that most of BC will be on year-round Mountain Standard Time (same as Yukon and most of Arizona) regardless of what the government or the media want to call it. This is consistent with the usage of the term Mountain Standard Time in the Federal Interpretation Act where it is declared to be seven hours behind Greenwich time. The page should also document the BC governments attempt at redefining Pacific Time. Something like this:

• In 2019 the BC government prepared for what it thought would be a coordinated effort by Yukon and all the US states along the Pacific coast to switch to year-round UTC-7.
• As part of that preparation, the government created the 2019 Interpretation Amendment Act. The act was not supposed to go into force until all the affected states and Yukon were ready to adopt the change.
• For reasons not fully understood, the BC government assumed that the affected states, provinces, and territories would want to redefine the term Pacific Time instead of declaring a time change to Mountain Standard Time. Thus the 2019 act explicitly defines the name of BC's time zone as Pacific Time.
• Last week the BC government made a decision to put the 2019 Interpretation Amendment Act into force. The wording in the act was left unchanged because any changes to the act would likely have meant a delay of another year.
• The result is that we now have completely incompatible definitions of the term Pacific Time on each side of the international border. MapGrid (talk) 17:06, 5 March 2026 (UTC)

I think the Sunshine Protection Act of the U.S. proposed the Advancement Of Standard Time, in this case by striking “8 hours” and inserting “by 7 hours”. This explains to redefine the term Pacific time instead of [...]. Of course that act is still a proposed one. — Peterwhy (talk) 21:52, 5 March 2026 (UTC)

You seem to mean that the government of British Columbia is playing political games and hijacked the name. I agree with that. That is not the question for Wikipedia, though. Like it or not, they did create a new time zone name, "Pacific Time", not Pacific Standard Time or Pacific Daylight Time or Mountain Standard Time. Since the name was created and is the source of multiple citations/reliable sources, Wikipedia policy is to have this article. Vanguard10 (talk) 09:00, 6 March 2026 (UTC)

Right. This RM is not a referendum on whether "Pacific Time" is a good name; what we're determining is whether it's the common name.

Note also that Pacific Time will continue to redirect to the primary topic Pacific Time Zone. 162 etc. (talk) 17:29, 6 March 2026 (UTC)

Great discussion. Is Pacific Time the common name, you ask. It seems like it is. See the CBC News article, which is national, not local. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-clocks-changing-timeline-9.7112204 Title is "A timeline of how B.C. got to Pacific time year-round". In the article, it uses the term pacific time. This is one huge confusion and, for lack of a better word, clusterf*ck. There is now Pacific Time and Pacific Standard Time, which are DIFFERENT! There's also the colloquial name of "Pacific Time, which is GMT-8 winter/GMT-7 summer. This article is about Pacific Time, but since there's already a Pacific Time, it's Pacific Time (British Columbia). Vanguard10 (talk) 21:46, 6 March 2026 (UTC)

• Support – per above and also it's not clear that "Pacific Time" will "take", so per WP:NATURALDIS, Time in British Columbia is the best choice. —Joeyconnick (talk) 19:17, 5 March 2026 (UTC)
• Strong support. Once the U.S. falls back in November, BC's new time zone will not be Pacific Time by any stretch of the imagination. O.N.R. ^(talk) 22:10, 5 March 2026 (UTC)

  Correct. By November 2026, there will be massive confusion. Pacific Time (GMT-7) and Pacific Standard Time, verbally called Pacific Time (GMT-8). Premier David Eby is being so stupid but that is not the issue. BC's time zone will be and is Pacific Time. Vanguard10 (talk) 09:02, 6 March 2026 (UTC)

• additional comment and analysis. There is a difference between Time in British Columbia and Pacific Time (British Columbia). Time in British Columbia is a subject that will have difficulty finding reliable sources unless it's a travel article about the different times in BC, like near Alberta versus Vancouver. Pacific Time (British Columbia) is about the government process to create a new time zone (government press releases refer to a new time zone) and what facts there are about Pacific Time zone. The "Time in British Columbia" is so non-noteable that it is a redirect to Time in Canada. Vanguard10 (talk) 21:50, 6 March 2026 (UTC)

  First: it's only a redirect until we change it.

  Second: no, Time in British Columbia is EXACTLY what we're talking about and can use all the same sources. There's nothing different about it. Time in Canada is about time zones, as are all the other "Time in [province/territory]" articles. —Joeyconnick (talk) 23:30, 6 March 2026 (UTC)

• Support – This is not a new time zone. BC just wants to use a new term to differentiate Pacific Daylight Time to Pacific Standard Time. Yukon also follows the same time zone and they call it Yukon Standard Time. Janbryan (talk) 06:30, 8 March 2026 (UTC)
• Comments: 1) As I read from their article names, Time in British Columbia will be more general and cover a larger area than Pacific Time (British Columbia), including the eastern part of BC that don't observe Pacific .* Time. This is analogous to how Time in Nunavut describes multiple time zones, and Time in Alaska is more than just Alaska Time Zone.
  2) Without a separate Pacific Time (British Columbia) article, I expect Pacific Time Zone will be expanded to describe its different meanings across the international border. This might belong to the previous talk section of #New article: "Are Pacific Time Zone and this new Pacific Time different enough to have a new article?" — Peterwhy (talk) 05:36, 7 March 2026 (UTC)

  I've updated the PTZ article to reflect the fact that PTZ in its U.S.-like sense doesn't exist anymore in Canada. And agreed in re point 2. Casspedia (talk) 01:37, 9 March 2026 (UTC)

• Support, Time in British Columbia is a more neutral title until we know which common name will catch on. I have a hard time believing that "Pacific Time" will be it, given the confusion with the American Pacific Time but we shouldn't speculate either way. Let's wait and see. BLAIXX 15:46, 8 March 2026 (UTC)

  Confusion is why Wikipedia needs the article. The Pacific Time Zone article has a tag on top ". For the usage in British Columbia, see Pacific Time (British Columbia)." If the article is renamed "Time in British Columbia" that will generate confusion when readers think BC is still Pacific Time (USA) and look up Pacific Time. The "Pacific Time Zone" wikipedia article would see pushback if there was a "See 'Time in British Columbia' ", much as if the Central Time Zone has a tag "See Time in Tokyo" or if there were many tags saying "See 'Time in _____ (name of state and province)' ". Given that the BC Government has announced the new name, we should use it. Vanguard10 (talk) 18:47, 11 March 2026 (UTC)

• Support per consistency, natural, etc. Red Slash 18:13, 9 March 2026 (UTC)
• Support Regardless of whether or not it's a new time zone or whether or not said new time zone is called "Pacific Time", "Time in British Colombia" is an accurate description of the subject. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 21:26, 14 March 2026 (UTC)
• Support, "Time in British Columbia" is intuitively more WP:BROAD, and thus more naturally covers the use of multiple time zones within the province. Perhaps in the distant future one particular time zone would need to be split out, but it seems unlikely at the moment. CMD (talk) 06:40, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

References

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Discussion at Template talk:Time zones of Canada § Mountain Time Zone

 You are invited to join the discussion at Template talk:Time zones of Canada § Mountain Time Zone. Joeyconnick (talk) 01:27, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

Images label BC as MST, article text uses "Pacific Time (UTC−07:00)"

The article text describes British Columbia as observing Pacific Time year‑round at UTC−07:00, noting this offset is equivalent to Mountain Standard Time, but legally and politically referred to as Pacific Time. However, the two time‑zone maps label BC as MST (UTC−07:00). While the offset matches, the naming is inconsistent with the article text. The images should be updated for consistency.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_British_Columbia#/media/File:Canada_time_zone_map_-_en.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_British_Columbia#/media/File:Canada_time_zone_map_with_neighbours-_en.svg ~2026-22777-73 (talk) 17:35, 13 April 2026 (UTC)

Yes, this article is a big mess. I feel sorry for anyone who genuinely needs this information. See the discussion at Template talk:Time zones of Canada. -- MediaKyle (talk) 17:38, 13 April 2026 (UTC)

As far as I researched, the inconsistency comes from the IANA tz database, where maintainer Paul Eggert chose "MST" as a pragmatic compromise because POSIX and TZDB guidelines require abbreviations to be at least three characters, making "PT" non-conformant. He described this as "the best of a bad lot," not a reclassification to Mountain Time.

I tried adding this context to the article but it was reverted because the structure was too poor.

Would this help clarify the situation and context of Mountain Standard Time? Chezou (talk) 17:08, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

Articles of municipalities should be updated

Recently, I've been editing articles about municipalities in British Columbia to make sure that the time zone is updated.

I can't do this alone. Someone else should have to contribute.

Leuchar55 (talk) 22:47, 3 June 2026 (UTC)