Students in Alberta and British Columbia will be starting their school days in the darkness for part of this new academic year once the two provinces formally transition to permanent daylight saving time on Nov. 1. At Edmonton’s latitude of 53.5 degrees north, the sun will not rise before 8:30 a.m. from late October to late January, and it won’t arrive until about 10 a.m. in the period around the winter solstice.
School administrators and facilities managers still have a few weeks to assess and adjust outdoor lighting, devise traffic safety protocols and consider design tweaks to brighten up classroom ambience before start-times become discordant with human circadian rhythms. Sleepier students can be anticipated.
“We may have modern technology, but our bodies are very much still traditional,” observes Tanya Steeves, a lead lighting designer with the consulting firm, WSP Canada, and president of the Illuminating Engineering Society’s (IES) Edmonton chapter. “The natural course of the sun over a day influences the times when we feel more alert.”
The British Columbia and Alberta governments separately announced the pending move to permanent daylight saving time in the spring of 2026. Both provinces highlighted public consultation processes that elicited majority approval for eliminating the annual spring-forward/fall-back rotation between daylight saving and standard time, and underscored the appeal of an extra hour of sunlight later in the day and the practicalities of narrowing the hourly spread across Canada’s six time zones and better aligning with some U.S. states. Notably, Saskatchewan, which has historically entrenched permanent standard time, will now be in sync with Alberta for the entire year.
Still, the March and April announcements may not have inspired much contemplation of winter solstice realties at a time when daily hours of daylight were increasing. Steeves advises school officials who have not already done so to begin their preparations with a visual inspection of their properties while it is dark outside. That will flag some easy fixes, such as replacing burnt-out bulbs, and identify areas where more light is needed.
Outdoor safety
They should pay attention to walkways, surfaces with changing elevation, areas around playground equipment and any zone where pedestrians and vehicles both travel. For more complicated scenarios, professional light measurement, mapping and guidance are recommended, particularly when it comes to illuminating upright surfaces and figures.
“It’s not just about the light that’s cast onto the ground; it’s the vertical light also — making sure faces are visible,” Steeves explains. “Vertical light is super-important, especially when cars and pedestrians are interacting. For that hour or two before school starts, make sure there is good facial recognition from all sides. Add snow and ice into the mix, and you just want to make sure that everybody can see everybody.”
The British Columbia Automobile Association (BCAA) and the Alberta Motor Association (AMA), which respectively coordinate the school crossing guard programs in the two provinces, are likewise emphasizing that message. Linda Lawlor, BCAA’s associate manager, community impact, reminds pedestrians not to venture into a crosswalk before making eye contact with drivers and ensuring they have stopped, and to augment their own visibility to approaching traffic with reflective clothing or accessories.
“For drivers, make sure your front and rear lights are working correctly and remember to turn them on in any lower-light situation. Don’t rely fully on automatic light settings,” she adds.
AMA touts its approachability for school administrators seeking guidance. “AMA continuously works with schools to understand their school zone safety challenges. In 2025, in response to the growing complexity of school environments, we introduced new student patrol roles for drop-off and pick-up zones, drive-lane crossings and school bus loading areas,” a statement from the organization reports.
Indoor ambience
Inside the classroom, natural light will be absent or less vivid as the day’s learning begins. For potential insight and guidance, school officials might look to the WELL standard. It addresses circadian lighting, including specifications for “melanopic light intensity in learning areas”. There are also some less complicated potential interventions on the cheerfulness front.
“Colour can profoundly affect our mood. Warm, light-reflective shades work wonders to create a greater sense of optimism and energy. Soft yellows, warm pinks, botanical greens and creamy whites are great colour options for classrooms, as they can feel restorative and uplifting,” says Colette van den Thillart, the principal at Colette van den Thillart Interior Design. “On dark winter days, cold greys, blues and stark whites can make a room feel flatter and more austere, which is often made worse by blue-tint LED lighting.”
For building operators in schools and commercial buildings alike, this fall will be a departure from what has been the conventional routine of adjusting controls in line with the time change. “As daylight availability shifts, building operations should incorporate lighting controls, scheduling and zoning into operational planning, while prioritizing efficient lighting upgrades in capital plans to manage energy costs, peak demand, emissions and evolving performance requirements,” advises Bala Gnanam, vice president, sustainability, advocacy and stakeholder relations, with the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Canada.
Steeves predicts fall and winter will serve up new discoveries about the implications of rejecting standard time and injecting another hour of darkness into the morning. For its part, the Alberta government has pledged to closely monitor how the transition unfolds and gather feedback after the first full year of permanent daylight saving time has been completed. The B.C. government has not indicated if it has similar plans.
“Everything we know about the school day and the work day and how lighting affects it is going to be pushed by an hour. If we’re accustomed to noon being the high point when we’re getting the best light, now that’s not going to be happening until 1 p.m.,” Steeves muses. “We have to adjust to that.”
