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Petition to end time change in the NWT could go before legislature

An online petition to eliminate time change in the Northwest Territories could be going before the legislative assembly.

RELATED: Keep daylight savings – petition calls to end time change in the NWT

The petition closed Monday, and gained 533 signatures from locals in total.

The petition has been submitted to the legislature, but an MLA would have to bring it forward in order for it to be discussed further, says lead petitioner Julian Morse.

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Morse is a Yellowknife city councillor, but submitted the petition as a private citizen.

“My ultimate feeling is that putting the NWT out of sync [with Alberta] is probably something MLAs are not going to be comfortable doing,” Morse told Moose FM.

“They’ll probably be moving forward with that in mind. It’s going to be up to them what they want to do with it.”

Similar petition in Alberta

Morse’s petition may not leave the two jurisdictions on different times, however. A similar petition has been created by an Albertan MLA, calling to keep daylight saving time year-round.

“Ultimately I think it’s something governments are going to look at doing following Saskatchewan’s lead,” said Morse.

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Saskatchewan is the only province that does not follow daylight saving time and keeps a standard time year-round.

“Saskatchewan’s been doing it for years and it’s worked really well for them so I don’t see why we shouldn’t either,” he said.

“There’s proven advantages to keeping daylight saving time around, so why don’t we just do it?”

By simply keeping daylight saving time year-round, some researchers have suggested there could be health and economic benefits for residents.

Hopes to start a discussion

It’s an ‘inconvenience’ to change times, Morse says, but it’s hard to say whether his petition has enough signatures to make a difference in the territory.

“I don’t necessarily think that the government should be making a decision that big based on 500 people wanting to do it,” Morse admitted.

For him, the petition is more about sparking a discussion and having the option considered.

“I think what [this petition] shows is there’s a significant amount of interest in the idea and that perhaps they should be looking into it as an option,” he said.

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