Your objections, answered.

Their view matters. Their argument is serious: morning light helps set our body clock, especially in winter and especially in teenagers. Sleep specialists recommend standard time, and a Canadian analysis published in October 2026 concludes that the health evidence leans that way.

But we need to be precise about what science knows. The biological mechanism is solid. The full balance of a permanent time for Québec, however, has not been measured in any known study: many studies look at the shock of the time change (which is being abolished anyway) or compare very different American regions with each other. And these studies do not count the value of a bright end of the day: walks, sports, a safer trip home, social life.

Even some sleep researchers call for honest communication of uncertainty and for taking public preferences into account. Choosing daylight time is an informed choice for society, paired with measures for the mornings. Not a rejection of science.

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In December and January, yes, more often than today: the sun would rise around 8:30 AM in southern Québec at the solstice. Note that it is already light about thirty minutes before sunrise (morning twilight).

In exchange, the trip home from school and after-school activities would be in daylight. Pedestrians are more vulnerable in the dark, and traffic is heavier at the end of the day.

Daylight time must come with measures for the mornings: later start times in high school (teens are naturally later and do better when school starts later relative to sunrise), well-lit routes to school and independent monitoring, with a review clause.

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There is a lot of talk about mornings. But young people’s health is also about moving, and their fitness has dropped a lot: since 1982, the aerobic fitness of 17-year-old Quebecers has fallen by about 18% in boys and 12% in girls.

Evening light is the light kids use: the park, soccer, biking after school. In a study of 23,000 children in nine countries, physical activity was a little higher on days when the sun set later. The average effect is small, and it varies from country to country.

For the mornings, Professor Christian Duval (UQAM) suggests starting school one hour later from December 1 to March 1. The American Academy of Pediatrics already recommends that high school not start before 8:30 AM, and California has made it law.

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No. Clocks don’t create light: they move it. With daylight time, an hour of light moves from the morning to the end of the day.

What changes is how much of that light falls while we are awake. In June, on standard time, the sun would rise around 4 AM, when almost everyone is asleep. Based on the sleep hours reported by Quebecers to Statistics Canada, year-round daylight time gives Montréal about 233 more hours of light a year while awake than year-round standard time, if everyone keeps their sleep hours. See the calculation or calculate with your schedule.

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Because almost nobody wants it: 91% of respondents to the 2024 consultation wanted to abolish it, and the government has announced a bill to do so. The spring jump is also associated, the following week, with more road crashes and small health risks.

Abolishing the time change solves this problem, whether we keep standard time or daylight time. The real question is therefore: which one do we keep.

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It’s a real question. Ontario passed a law in 2020 to keep daylight time all year; it will come into force by proclamation. In October 2026, the Ontario government said that coordinating with Québec and New York State is important. If Québec chooses daylight time, the missing piece becomes New York.

Let’s do the math while Ontario still changes its clocks:

• Daylight time in Québec: Gatineau and Ottawa would be on the same time about 8 months a year, and one hour apart from November to March. No gap at all if Ontario activates its law.
• Standard time in Québec: one hour apart about 8 months a year, from March to November. And 12 months out of 12 if Ontario activates its law.

In other words, daylight time reduces the gap with Ontario in both scenarios: whether Ontario keeps changing its clocks or brings its law into force.

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True: during the oil crisis, the United States adopted year-round daylight time in mid-December 1973, taking effect three weeks later, in the middle of winter, then dropped it by the fall of 1974, partly because of the dark mornings.

That reversal is useful information: it is a reminder that winter mornings need preparing. The statistics of the time were disputed, and the context has changed since then (street lighting, vehicles, daytime running lights, work schedules). In 2026, the U.S. House of Representatives in fact voted again for permanent daylight time.

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Russia lived on daylight time all year from 2011 to 2014, then went back. A study of nearly 8,000 young people in the north of European Russia links it to more sleep misalignment and a stronger winter mood effect, with small effects. It is a warning to take seriously.

Latitude and sunrise time must be taken into account, though: in winter, under that system, the sun rose around 10 AM in Moscow, and even later in the north of the country. In Québec, with daylight time, it would rise around 8:30 AM at the solstice in the south of the province, earlier than in Paris today. That is also why daylight time must come with adapted school schedules in winter.

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Nobody knows. International studies give very mixed results: a small saving on average, but sometimes an increase, depending on climate and heating. A Canadian study that includes Québec finds effects that vary from province to province. But the effect of daylight time in the depth of winter, with our electric heating and our morning and late-day peaks, has not been estimated in any known study.

The case for daylight time does not need that promise: it rests on the light people get to enjoy.

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It is one of the most striking cases among towns in southern Québec: Abitibi lies at the western edge of its time zone, so its sun rises and sets later. At the solstice, with daylight time, sunrise would be around 9:05 AM.

Two things, though. First, it is also the region that gains the most at the end of the day: in Rouyn-Noranda, with a typical schedule, daylight time gives about 360 more hours of sunshine a year after 4:30 PM. Second, Vancouver will have that same sunrise around 9:05 AM this winter, its first on permanent daylight time, and Saskatoon has lived with a sunrise around 9:13 AM for decades. These are Canadian realities, not an unprecedented experiment; they do not, however, prove the absence of health effects.

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Correct. It was an online consultation open to all: participants selected themselves, so the percentages do not exactly represent the whole population.

But over 214,000 responses were received, and the message is clear. Elsewhere in Canada, other consultations, also open to all, gave similar results: in Manitoba in 2026 (58% for daylight time, 34% for standard time), in Yukon and in British Columbia. Polls, which survey a weighted sample, point the same way: 57% of Quebecers for year-round daylight time versus 18% for standard time (Léger, 2024), and 56% versus 29% in Québec (Angus Reid, March 2026).

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Legal time is a convention, chosen to coordinate our lives. Eastern “standard time” is set on the 75th meridian, which passes near Mont-Laurier. But most Quebecers live further east: in Québec City, Rimouski or Gaspé, the sun is already “ahead” of the clock.

With daylight time, solar noon in Montréal would fall around 12:54 PM on average (it varies by a quarter of an hour over the seasons), roughly like Paris in winter. This offset is common: hundreds of millions of Europeans live with it. It proves nothing about health, either way; what matters is the light we get and our schedules.

For those who leave before dawn, winter mornings would stay dark either way. On the other hand, those who finish early (around 3 PM) would enjoy more daylight with daylight time. For night work, ending the time change eliminates the 23-hour and 25-hour nights, whichever time is chosen.

The site’s simulator lets you enter your own daytime schedule: try it. It does not handle night schedules.

These areas already live on Atlantic time (one hour ahead of Montréal), and the Lower North Shore does not change its clocks. The bill will have to specify their situation; its text is not yet known. In Nunavik, Makivvik for its part aims to end the time change from November 2027.

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Three actions, from most effective to simplest:

1. Write to your MNA (or better, call): two minutes, with a ready-made letter containing your town’s figures.
2. Take part in the government’s consultations as soon as they open (the link will be on this site).
3. Share your calculation or an image with people around you.