Manitoba and part of northwestern Ontario have ended seasonal clock changes, keeping the UTC-5 time used during the summer through the winter.
The change took effect on November 1. Manitoba now calls its year-round zone Manitoba Standard Time, abbreviated MBT. Despite the name, it is the same offset as the province’s former daylight-saving time. Residents did not turn their clocks back and will not move them forward next spring.
Ontario made a narrower change. The regulation applies to the part of the province west of 90 degrees west longitude, aligning communities in the Kenora area and the far northwest with Manitoba. The rest of Ontario continues to observe the existing seasonal system unless the law is changed again.
The two measures reduce a practical border problem. Without Ontario’s regional adjustment, neighbouring communities, employers and transport services could have found themselves on different clocks for part of the year. Calendar systems, payroll software and travel schedules may still require updates because time-zone databases do not always change at the same pace as legislation.
The reform does not alter the number of hours in a day or create a new national Canadian time zone. It fixes the legal offset in the affected provinces and regions throughout the year, while other jurisdictions remain free to retain seasonal changes.
Manitoba’s government has published an official guide to the year-round time zone, and Ontario has published its regional regulation.
