Aggravation? ‘Absolutely’: How B.C.’s time change affects businesses on both sides of the border

B.C. and its closest American neighbours have weathered COVID border restrictions and the uncertainty of tariff and trade tensions. Now it has another cross-border wrinkle to deal with: Time itself.

Nowhere is this more felt than in Point Roberts, the small American enclave on the tip of the Tsawwassen peninsula that can be reached from land only through Delta and an international border.

“It’s just another hardship for Point Roberts, especially for our children,” said Brian Calder, a Point Roberts resident and past-president of the Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce.

Most kids take buses to schools in Blaine or Bellingham, but some attend school in Delta, which is a shorter drive, said Calder.

Starting Nov. 1, those students and their families will have to perform extra math to keep their schedules straight.

“It’s just going to be a lot of mental fatigue,” he said, adding many Point Roberts residents also fly from Vancouver International Airport or get medical treatment in the Lower Mainland.

With B.C. staying on daylight time permanently, the province will be an hour ahead of Washington, Oregon and California — a shift that requires some adjustment across a region where businesses, transportation, and communities routinely operate across international borders.

The time change could cause confusion, at least initially.

The Washington State Department of Transportation issued a notice this week informing passengers about changes on their tickets for travel.

While a trip between Seattle and Vancouver is four hours, but tickets will reflect a three-hour trip southbound or a five-hour trip northbound.

“Similar to what travellers experience when crossing time zones in the United States, tickets will reflect departure time at the city that passengers are leaving and arrival times for their destination city,” it said in a notice.

A similar adjustment applies to Victoria Clipper and Black Ball ferries, which informed customers on its websites that schedules and arrival times will reflect the local time in each city. The ferries connect Victoria to Washington state.

The time difference could cause mixups for truck drivers, said Dave Earle of the B.C. Trucking Association, although not as much as one would expect because “we’re pretty used to screwy things.”

He pointed out that B.C. already spans different time zones, with some communities in the Peace Region and East Kootenay on Mountain Standard Time.

Canada Border Services Agency is changing the hours of several commercial crossings from Nov. 1 to March 14 to align with their U.S. counterparts, which might result in the occasional driver getting stuck at the border and not being able to cross. “Big issues? No. Aggravation, absolutely,” he said.