[tz] [IANA #1173666] Time zone change - Yukon Canada

[Andrew.Smith at gov.yk.ca]

Good day.

I work for the Government of Yukon in Canada. We are in the process of revising our definition of time to be permanently on UTC -7, no longer observing a twice-annual time change.
I was on the hunt for authoritative standards related to time, and saw the IANA come up as caretaker of the time zone database, which appears to be relied on for software and systems. I am contacting you to see if there is any process beyond notification to making this adjustment in your TZ database, and perhaps to know if there are other agencies that should be aware of what Yukon is planning.
From what I see now, TZ database names "America/Dawson", "America/Whitehorse" and "Canada/Yukon" would be affected by this change.

Our regulation is not yet complete, so it is not law at this time and I am not looking for immediate change. We are aiming for finalization here by November 1, 2020.
Hope to hear from you soon.

Andrew

Andrew G. Smith
Intergovernmental Relations
Executive Council Office
Government of Yukon
C: 867-335-6008

-----Original Message-----
From: Amanda Baber via RT <iana-questions at iana.org> 
Sent: July 2, 2020 3:48 PM
To: Andrew.Smith <Andrew.Smith at gov.yk.ca>
Subject: [IANA #1173666] Time zone change - Yukon Canada

Dear Andrew,

Thank you for contacting us.

IANA hosts the Time Zone Database, but the database is managed by the Time Zone Coordinator in conjunction with a mailing list. You can find find mailing list information here:

https://www.iana.org/time-zones

This document should have or point to much of the information you're looking for:

https://data.iana.org/time-zones/tz-link.html

As is noted at the link above, "If your government plans to change its time zone boundaries or daylight saving rules, inform tz at iana.org well in advance, as this will coordinate updates to many cell phones, computers, and other devices around the world. With less than a year's notice there is a good chance that some computer-based clocks will operate incorrectly after the change, due to delays in propagating updates to software and data. The shorter the notice, the more likely clock problems will arise; see https://imsva91-ctp.trendmicro.com:443/wis/clicktime/v1/query?url=https%3a%2f%2fcodeofmatt.com%2fon%2dthe%2dtiming%2dof%2dtime%2dzone%2dchanges%2f&umid=9AEE9BE6-A97D-3305-9566-A908474DCD53&auth=c132af8ee7c9d1278d61a701569070a095ce962e-ec0cbfbd0bcf9eb23a871cfbba73d9387a590c0d for examples."

Best regards,

Amanda Baber
Lead IANA Services Specialist

On Thu Jul 02 22:20:44 2020, Andrew.Smith at gov.yk.ca wrote:
> Good day.
> 
> I work for the Government of Yukon in Canada. We are in the process of 
> revising our definition of time to be permanently on UTC -7, no longer 
> observing a twice-annual time change.
> I was on the hunt for authoritative standards related to time, and saw 
> the IANA come up as caretaker of the time zone database, which appears 
> to be relied on for software and systems. I started with ISO 8601, but 
> couldn't see the full text to know if there are time zone standards 
> there. I am contacting you to see your TZ database is a widely adopted 
> and authoritative as it seems, to see if there is any process to 
> making this adjustment in your TZ database, and perhaps to know if 
> there are other agencies that should be aware of what Yukon is 
> planning.
> From what I see now, TZ database names "America/Dawson", 
> "America/Whitehorse" and "Canada/Yukon" would be affected by this 
> change.
> 
> Our regulation is not yet complete, so it is not law at this time and 
> I am not looking for immediate change. We are aiming for finalization 
> here by November 1, 2020.
> Hope to hear from you soon.
> 
> Andrew
> 
> 
> [cid:image003.png at 01D65084.40C16690]
> 
> Andrew G. Smith
> Intergovernmental Relations
> Executive Council Office
> C 867-335-6008 | Yukon.ca