Alberta Time (ABT) Explained: UTC−6 All Year

The short answer

If you live in Alberta, do nothing on November 1, 2026. You keep the time you have now, and you will not spring forward in March either. The government of Alberta calls the new standard Alberta Time, abbreviated ABT, and defines it as UTC−6:00 — six hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. Before, the same offset was called Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) and lasted only from March to November.

The last time Albertans changed their clocks was the spring-forward on Sunday, March 8, 2026. From November, clocks no longer reset to Mountain Standard Time (MST, UTC−7).

• Winter mornings are darker: a late-December sunrise in Calgary is around 9:37 a.m. instead of 8:37 a.m.
• Winter evenings are lighter: sunset moves from about 4:31 p.m. to about 5:31 p.m.
• Alberta and Saskatchewan now share one clock all year, and BC is one hour behind all year.

Time differences from Alberta this winter

Because Alberta stopped changing while others did not, some gaps change on Sun, Nov 1, 2026 and change back on Sun, Mar 14, 2027. Compared with Calgary and Edmonton:

For most people, the change they will notice is with Eastern Canada. A 9:00 a.m. Toronto meeting is at 8:00 a.m. in Calgary this winter instead of 7:00 a.m., and a hockey game that starts at 7:00 p.m. Eastern begins at 6:00 p.m. in Edmonton. The 2026 Grey Cup at McMahon Stadium in Calgary kicks off at 5:00 p.m. local time, which is 6:00 p.m. in Toronto. From March 14, 2027, the two-hour gap returns, because Ontario springs forward and Alberta does not need to.

Alberta and BC are still one hour apart, exactly as before, because BC also stopped changing and kept its summer offset. The Rockies crossing at Kicking Horse Pass and the Crowsnest Pass therefore look the same on your phone year-round.

Darker mornings, lighter evenings

Keeping the summer offset all year moves winter daylight one hour later on the clock. Approximate sunrise and sunset on Alberta Time (UTC−6), compared with what the clock would have shown under the old winter time:

Times are calculated from the sun's position and are accurate to within a couple of minutes. In practice, most December and January school days in Alberta now start in the dark, especially north of Edmonton, while after-school and after-work hours get an extra hour of light.

• Walking to school or the bus stop: reflective clothing and a light matter more in the morning than they used to.
• Driving east in the morning: the low sun now hits windshields later, around the start of the workday.
• Sleep: a steady wake-up time and some bright light soon after waking help your body adjust to later sunrises.

How Alberta got here

• October 2021: Albertans voted in a provincial referendum on adopting year-round daylight time. The official results published by Elections Alberta were 50.2% No (536,874 votes) and 49.8% Yes (531,782), so the clocks kept changing.
• March 2, 2026: British Columbia announced it would stop changing its clocks and stay at UTC−7 all year.
• April 23, 2026: Service Alberta minister Dale Nally tabled a bill to keep daylight time all year, branded "Alberta Time". Premier Danielle Smith said the province would look again once people had lived with it.
• September 2026: Manitoba and the Northwest Territories also announced they would not fall back.
• November 1, 2026: the first fall-back that does not happen.

The province lists its reasons as fewer disruptions from twice-yearly clock changes, more predictability for families, businesses, schools and services, alignment with neighbouring jurisdictions, and less confusion for people who live, work or do business across borders. It plans to gather feedback after the first full year.

Lloydminster and the border communities

Lloydminster straddles the Alberta–Saskatchewan border and has long kept Alberta's clock on both sides, which used to mean a winter hour that did not match the rest of Saskatchewan. With Alberta at UTC−6 all year and Saskatchewan at UTC−6 all year, the two sides of the city and both provinces now show the same time in every season. Saskatchewan's updated Time Act reflects this.

On the BC side, the East Kootenay (Cranbrook, Fernie, Sparwood, Invermere, Kimberley, Radium Hot Springs, Elkford) stays on UTC−6 with Alberta, so Crowsnest Pass and Fernie still match. Most of BC is one hour behind.

If you commute or deliver across a provincial or US border, check the local time of the place you are going to rather than relying on "same as last winter": Montana and Idaho are one hour behind Alberta from November to mid-March.

Phones, computers and appliances

• Phones and computers that set the time automatically use the time-zone database maintained for all major operating systems, which was updated in 2026 for Alberta. Install pending system updates before November 1.
• Devices set to "Denver" or "Mountain Time (US & Canada)" will fall back with the United States and show the wrong time all winter. Choose Edmonton, Calgary or your actual location instead.
• Older appliances and car clocks that change by themselves on fixed dates may still jump back an hour on November 1. Set them forward again by hand.
• Calendars: recurring meetings with people in Ontario, Quebec or the US may shift by an hour on November 1. Check invitations created by others in the first week.

If a device shows 1:00 a.m. twice on the night of October 31 to November 1, or is an hour behind the next morning, its time-zone setting is wrong, not the clock.