East-Saskatchewan -> Saskatchewan [forwarded with permission]

[Arthur David Olson]

> Date: 06 Nov 1992 16:13:04 -0600 (CST)
> From: jones at skdad.usask.ca (W. Jones)
> Subject: Re: East-Saskatchewan -> Saskatchewan
> To: ado at elsie.nci.nih.gov
> Cc: eggert at twinsun.com, hardie at herald.usask.ca, henry at zoo.utoronto.ca,
>         peachey at pixar.com, tastad at sklib.usask.ca
> ...
> 
> Earlier I wrote:
> >The most likely answer is that no-DST was adopted province-wide on some date
> >(say in the late 1960s), and before that was subject to community variations.
> >One thing I might ask is what precision you consider important for describing
> >earlier practice.  (Whatever the date, there were certainly no Unix systems
> >running in affected areas.)
> 
> The approximate answer below is based on information I got from our law
> library, the provincial archives, and the provincial Community Services
> department.  A precise history would require digging through newspaper
> archives, and since you didn't say what you wanted, I didn't bother.
> 
> Saskatchewan is split by a time zone meridian (105W) and over the years
> the boundary became pretty ragged as communities near it reevaluated
> their affiliations in one direction or the other.  In 1965 a provincial
> referendum favoured legislating common time practices.
> 
> On 15 April 1966 the Time Act (c. T-14, Revised Statutes of Saskatchewan
> 1978) was proclaimed, and established that the eastern part of
> Saskatchewan would use CST year round, that districts in northwest
> Saskatchewan would by default follow CST but could opt to follow Mountain
> Time rules (thus 1 hour difference in the winter and zero in the summer),
> and that districts in southwest Saskatchewan would by default follow
> MT but could opt to follow CST.
> 
> It took a few years for the dust to settle (I know one story of a town
> on one time zone having its school in another, such that a mom had to
> serve her family lunch in two shifts), but presently it seems that only
> a few towns on the border with Alberta (e.g. Lloydminster) follow MT
> rules any more; all other districts appear to have used CST year round
> since sometime in the 1960s.
> 
> Here's how I would summarize things.  Establish a "Saskatchewan" CST time
> zone, and note that it officially exists as of 15 April 1966.  Any current
> exceptions can put themselves in the "Mountain" zone, since those are the
> rules they follow.  Any past exceptions can be forgotten, since that's
> what those who live here have done.