In March 2026, the BC provincial government announced the province would stop observing daylight saving time and switch to a new time zone called Pacific Time (PCT). This new time zone will see the province observe year-round Pacific Daylight Time or UTC-07:00, and BC will not be “falling back” to Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00, on November 1, 2026, as it has in previous years.
The time zones in Canvas and Canvas Catalog have been adjusted to reflect this change.
What does this mean?
Until now, courses in Canvas and Canvas Catalog have been set to use the Pacific Time (US & Canada) (-08:00/-07:00) time zone. To prepare for this new time zone change in BC, the Canvas and Canvas Catalog vendor has performed a one-time adjustment to items that fall between November 1, 2026, and March 14, 2027. This includes:
- Availability dates
- Due dates
- Scheduled publish dates
- Course calendar events
In addition:
- All active courses that were set to Pacific Time (US & Canada) (-08:00/-07:00) have been updated to the new Pacific Time (Canada) (-07:00/-07:00) time zone in Canvas and Canvas Catalog
- All user accounts previously set to Pacific Time (US & Canada) (-08:00/-07:00) have been updated to the new Pacific Time (Canada) (-07:00/-07:00) time zone in Canvas and Canvas Catalog
Why was the adjustment necessary?
This was done to ensure that all times displayed in Canvas and Canvas Catalog between November 1, 2026, to March 14, 2027, continued to display as intended when viewed from the new Pacific Time (Canada) zone. Without this adjustment, for example, an assignment due on November 15 at 10:00am would have been due at 11:00am after the time zone change.
What do I need to do?
While the transition should be seamless, we recommend confirming due dates and availability settings for key assessments in early November.
Going forward, new courses will automatically be created in the correct Pacific Time (Canada) (-07:00/-07:00) time zone, and any dates and times set in Canvas or Canvas Catalog courses will not require future adjustment.
Where can I get further help?
If you encounter any unexpected behaviour or errors around the time zone change, please feel free to reach out to us at the LT Hub by emailing us at LT.hub@ubc.ca.