Residents of Lloydminster and the surrounding area did not change their clocks this weekend, for the first time under provincial law. The Time Act, 2026 came into force on 30 October and establishes year-round Central Standard Time across Saskatchewan.
The legislation replaces The Time Act of 1966, which had established Central Standard Time for most of the province while allowing certain regions to hold local votes on the time observed in what the statute called time option areas. Before 1966, Saskatchewan had a patchwork of local time standards.
Most of those areas chose to keep Central Standard Time throughout the year. Lloydminster, which straddles the Saskatchewan–Alberta boundary, did not: the previous legislation required the Saskatchewan side of the city and its surrounding area to observe Mountain Standard Time in winter to align with Alberta.
Alberta’s announcement that 2026 would be its final spring forward, after which it would follow Central Standard Time permanently, removed the reason for the arrangement. The Ministry of Government Relations repealed and replaced the 1966 Act accordingly.
“Without this change, Lloydminster would become a ‘time island’ observing Mountain Standard Time in the winter while both its provinces set their clocks to Central Standard Time,” Government Relations Minister Eric Schmalz said.
Schmalz said the legislation also gives the province “the flexibility to respond when neighbouring provinces or territories follow Saskatchewan’s lead and change their time rules”, citing Alberta and Manitoba.
Lloydminster’s mayor, Gerald Aalbers, welcomed the change. “Living on the border of two provinces comes with its unique circumstances, but we are pleased that keeping track of the time won’t be one of them,” he said, adding that the change “ensures Lloydminster and our surrounding communities stay on the same clock year-round, bringing welcome consistency for residents, businesses, and schools”.
When the replacement was announced in April, Aalbers had put it more briefly. “No time travel required,” he said.
The province said that bringing the new Act into force before daylight saving time prevents the Lloydminster area from having a different official time than either province during the winter. The Act also removes the previous rules for holding local votes to change the time observed within school division boundaries, and allows border areas to follow a different time through regulations where they choose to align with a neighbouring jurisdiction.
The wording of the announcement repays a second reading. Saskatchewan has not joined a time zone. Alberta has been welcomed to one. The province said so in the headline of its April release, and the position has been held consistently since 1966: Saskatchewan observes Central Standard Time, and the clocks of neighbouring jurisdictions are a matter on which Saskatchewan reserves the right to respond.
This is, on reflection, the correct way to legislate time, and it is surprising that nobody else had thought of it. Alberta has until this year advanced and retreated twice annually. Saskatchewan has spent the same period stationary, and has now been formally joined by the jurisdiction that was moving.
The minister’s phrasing confirms the frame. Neighbours do not simply change their time rules; they follow Saskatchewan’s lead and then change their time rules. Manitoba is named in the same sentence. The Act exists to give the province the flexibility to respond to the movements of others, in the manner of a lighthouse noting the progress of shipping.
The Lloydminster problem is the clearest case. A community was at risk of becoming a time island, surrounded on both sides by Central Standard Time. The island was not relocated. The sea was.
The Department of Unnecessary Research observes that the statute is therefore not really about Saskatchewan at all. It is a schedule of other people’s arrivals, with provision for more.
Most of Saskatchewan has not changed its clocks since 1966. As of this weekend, none of it does. The rest of the continent is still coming round.