Preparing for the Change to Pacific Time

OVERVIEW

On Sunday, November 1, British Columbia will move to permanent year-round time. Unlike previous years, clocks will not “fall back” by an hour. Our new time zone will be called Pacific Canada Time (PCT). A new time zone is a technology change that many vendors and systems have not experienced, and it may affect some processes and systems across the university.

IT Services is working to help minimize disruption where possible. To prepare for this change, SFU is working with vendors, external service providers and system owners across the university to understand potential impacts and apply required updates.  

KEY POINTS

To all students, staff and faculty:

To ensure a smooth transition to our new time zone, we strongly recommend taking the following steps:

1. Avoid manually updating time or dates.
Manually adjusting your devices' time, calendars, meetings, appointments, dates, etc., could cause them to display incorrectly after time zone updates are installed. These software updates will apply the new B.C. time zone when once installed and can over correct your time-based items.

2. Update your computer, devices and browsers. Set time zones to automatic.  
All students, staff and faculty are advised to update their computer, devices and browser to the latest version to ensure the new time zones are installed.

For computers & laptops:

• Windows: There will be a new automatic update, Windows Update Oct 2026 (KB5127648). Be sure to install that new update and restart your computer.
• Mac: A notification should appear for a new time zone definition. It will be installed upon restarting your device.

For mobile:

• All modern mobile devices will automatically configure new time zones based on local cellular network connection. Time zones will silently update in the background.
• Tablets should maintain Wi-Fi connections. Time zones will silently update in the background.

For browsers:

• Google Chrome (Version 155 or higher)
• Mozilla Firefox (Version 158 or higher)

3. Take additional measures to safeguard from unintended time discrepancies.
If you are facilitating a meeting that requires a high level of certainty (such as an exam), consider adding the intended B.C. meeting time in its subject line or description field. This can safeguard against unintended meeting time discrepancies.

WHY THIS MATTERS

While many systems are expected to update automatically, some applications and devices may require additional updates or adjustments as vendors implement this new time zone into their systems.  

The following is a list of applications that are affected by time zone adjustment:

WHERE TO LEARN MORE

For more information about B.C.'s decision to adopt the new time zone, visit the B.C. government webpage on B.C.'s new time zone (Pacific time).