Daylight ahead for provincial time zone

New Brunswick joins a growing list of provinces planning to extend Daylight Saving Time beginning in the spring of 2007.

The move will put the province in sync with most of the United States, which will go on Daylight Time from early March to early November. Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and P.E.I. are also early adopters of the plan.

• FROM OCT. 21, 2005: Ontario, Manitoba to extend daylight time
• FROM DEC. 5, 2005: Quebec extends daylight time
• FROM DEC. 7, 2005: Island adjusts daylight saving time

The switch means that Daylight Time will start three weeks earlier in March and end one week later in November.

The government had also entertained the notion of moving from the Atlantic to the Eastern time zone. The United States does not have an Atlantic zone.

• INDEPTH: Daylight time

"I received some support from some business sectors and business leaders in New Brunswick," said premier Bernard Lord. But he says he received "a lot of e-mails and letters from mothers and parents saying they were concerned that their children would be coming home from school at 3:30 and it would be dark."

Lord said he was swayed by the human arguments in favour of staying in the Atlantic time zone.