Creston town council seems determined to give local voters a say in whether daylight savings time should be adopted. They just haven’t decided how to go about it.
At Tuesday’s regular meeting, Coun. Judy Gadicke introduced a motion that would have added the question to the November municipal election ballot, but the motion was defeated after debate.
“It would be an opinion poll, not a binding referendum,” she told council in making the motion that would ask voters whether they supported moving to mountain daylight time, which would put the Creston Valley in alignment with Cranbrook.
Regional District of Central Kootenay Area B director John Kettle suggested council consider asking Areas A, B and C to join in the opinion poll, but not as part of an election.
“This will become an election issue whether you want it to or not,” he said. “Not everyone will understand that they are being asked for their preference and not being told what to do.”
Kettle, who chairs the Kootenay East Regional Hospital District board, said that the board is exploring the feasibility of putting the Creston Valley Hospital onto daylight time.
“By not changing time when the East Kootenay does costs our hospital $50,000 in computer system costs,” he said.
Council agreed to explore alternatives to polling residents about their preference. Gadicke, who supports a move to daylight savings time, said she wants people to express their opinion.
“I just want to make sure we know what the people who live here want,” she said.
A referendum in the 1970s resulted in Creston opting for mountain standard time, which was favoured over Pacific standard time. The area has not adopted daylight time, though, necessitating that time zone signs be moved each year.
A binding referendum cannot be held on the issue because of the nature of the issue. Kettle said the provincial government has indicated it would accept the valley’s move to daylight time if there is an indication that the majority of residents support it.