March 2, 2026, Victoria, BC – In response to the provincial government’s announcement that B.C. would cease using Pacific Standard Time (PST) and permanently remain on Daylight Savings Time, Ryan Mitton, CFIB Director of Legislative Affairs for B.C. made the following statement:
“Today’s announcement will be a surprise to small businesses and comes after a rushed and limited consultation process. While some may be relieved not to change the clocks each year, the lack of coordination with other jurisdictions risks causing confusion and disruption. This appears motivated by an attempt to distract from the province’s $13-billion deficit, not genuine concern for the impacts of the time change.
"Changing the clocks will not change the channel on the recent B.C. budget, which is a disaster for small businesses. The provincial government may be ending PST (Pacific Standard Time), but now they must end the PST (Provincial Sales Tax) on professional services.
“Last week, CFIB joined a coalition of business organizations across all sectors of the economy to urge Premier David Eby to scrap his ill-advised tax hike. It’s clear the B.C. government has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.
“The clock is ticking on B.C.’s economy. Small businesses tell us they are losing sleep over a massive $13-billion deficit and multiple new tax increases. B.C. needs to do more than change the clocks, it needs to change course and stop Budget 2026’s devastating tax increases."
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For media enquiries or interviews, please contact:
Kalith Nanayakkara, CFIB
Kalith.nanayakkara@cfib.ca
About CFIB
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 103,000 members across every industry and region. CFIB is dedicated to increasing business owners’ chances of success by driving policy change at all levels of government, providing expert advice and tools, and negotiating exclusive savings. Learn more at cfib.ca.
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