Canadian Time Zone Changes

As you are likely aware, some Canadian provinces (BC, Alberta, and Manitoba) and territories (Yukon and NWT) have opted to remain on a permanent time and no longer move clocks back in November and forward in March. 

Our system has been configured to handle this change; however, there are a few things to be aware of as we go through this change for the first time.

New Government Time Zone Names vs Existing Definitions

Although provincial governments have defined new time zone names: Pacific Time (PCT), Alberta Time (ABT), Manitoba Standard Time (MBT), the international bodies that manage and control the time zone definitions used by computers did not adopt those changes. As such the following time zones will be used within our app:

We will look to implement an abstraction layer in a future release to display the names more likely to be expected by end users.

CMS and Phone Time Zone Configurations

We urge you to review your time entries within our Schedule & Schedule Sync modules to ensure that the proper time zones are being used. For example, although PT-Vancouver and PT-Los Angeles could have been used interchangeably for years without issue, that will no longer be the case come Sunday November 1st.

Similarly, we urge you to check your phone settings to ensure that your time zone is properly configured. 

Finally, if you are synchronizing events from other sources (Google Calendar, iCAL, WordPress, etc), ensure that those sources have also been configured properly. 

Note that there will likely be some hiccups due to this unprecedented transition. Watch out for updates from your Telecom provider as well as operating systems to help resolve some of the potential issues that may arise. 

Need Assistance?

If after the change (or lack thereof), you see issues with your schedules or any other time related features on the platform, please contact us. We would be happy to assist.

Featured Image by Xiaoxia Xu on Unsplash