One corner of Ontario is about to stop changing its clocks. The province announced on October 13 that Kenora and parts of northwestern Ontario will adopt permanent daylight saving time beginning November 1, 2026, ending the spring and fall time changes for residents there.
The northwest has long lived with an awkward split: communities near the Manitoba border share more of their daily life with Winnipeg than with Toronto, and Manitoba and the western provinces have already moved to permanent daylight time. Keeping Kenora on the same footing is meant to end the seasonal mismatch for work, travel and services across the region.
Ontario was clear that this is a regional step, not a province-wide one. A wider change, officials noted, would require coordination with neighbouring jurisdictions, including Quebec and New York State, whose economies are tightly linked with southern Ontario's.
For border services the change has practical knock-on effects, because the United States still switches its clocks seasonally. Travellers in the northwest this winter should check local hours carefully: in a region where the nearest services can be an hour away, a one-hour misunderstanding is not a small thing.
