Québec turns clocks back as four western jurisdictions stay on permanent time

Québec returned to Eastern Standard Time early Sunday, November 1, while four western jurisdictions stayed on their newly adopted permanent time systems.

Under Québec’s legal-time rules, clocks moved back one hour at 2 a.m., putting the province on UTC−5. Montréal and the West Island now remain aligned with Ontario and New York for the winter period.

The change no longer occurred everywhere in Canada. Alberta began permanent Alberta Time, UTC−6, on November 1. British Columbia stayed on UTC−7, Manitoba stayed on UTC−5, and the Northwest Territories stayed on UTC−6.

That creates new seasonal differences for travellers and remote workers. Québec is now two hours ahead of Alberta and three hours ahead of British Columbia. It shares the same clock time as Manitoba despite the provinces using different permanent or seasonal systems.

Residents should check meeting invitations, travel bookings and devices that may still carry outdated automatic time-zone rules. The provincial pages above were current on November 1, 2026; individual devices and calendar services may update on different schedules.

Featured image: Clocks by Donald Wu via Unsplash, used under the Unsplash Licence. WordPress may resize the original. This is an illustrative stock image and does not depict the reported event.