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BC and Alberta Clocks Won't Fall Back on November 1
On Sunday, November 1, 2026, British Columbia and Alberta stop changing their clocks. Clocks will not fall back an hour this fall. BC stays on UTC-7 year-round and Alberta stays on UTC-6 year-round.
The clock part is easy. The calendar part is not. Any meeting on or after November 1 can show up an hour early or an hour late if your computer, your phone or the meeting itself hasn't caught up. Below is what to expect, what we're doing, and the handful of things only you can do. It takes about ten minutes, and the best time to do it is this week.
What We're Doing
Microsoft released the Windows update this week. It adds two new time zones, (UTC-07:00) Pacific Time (British Columbia) and (UTC-06:00) Mountain Time (Alberta), and it's rolling out to the computers we manage now, so you don't need to install anything yourself. If your computer asks to restart for updates over the next couple of weeks, please let it. If a computer can't take the update in time, we'll set a temporary time zone on it for you.
What to Expect from November 1
A meeting may look right on your computer and an hour off on your phone, or the other way around. That's the update catching up, not you misreading it.
The time difference between BC, Alberta, and other regions will change this winter. BC will be two hours behind Toronto instead of three and one hour ahead of Seattle and California. Alberta will align with Saskatchewan and be one hour behind Toronto. If you regularly meet with colleagues or clients in other provinces or the US, double-check your upcoming meeting times and recurring appointments.
What You Need To Do
New Outlook or Outlook on the web: Settings, then Calendar, then View. Under "Display my calendar in time zone", choose the new zone and select Save.
Classic Outlook: File, then Options, then Calendar. Choose the new zone under Time zone and select OK.
New Outlook or Outlook on the web: open the meeting (choose Edit series for a recurring meeting), select the time, select the globe icon, choose the new time zone, then Save or Send.
Classic Outlook, one-off meeting: tick the Time zones box, choose the new time zone, then Save or Send.
Classic Outlook, recurring meeting: select Recurrence (Edit Recurrence), change the time zone, then Save or Send. If the time zone option isn't there, open a new event and tick the Time zones box first, then try again.
Your attendees get the updated invitation automatically.
One catch: changing the time zone on a recurring series wipes any one-off changes you made to it, such as a week you moved or cancelled. Make a note of those first and redo them afterwards.
When To Recreate a Meeting Instead
Cancel it and send a fresh invitation if:
- you've updated the time zone and the times still look wrong
- the series has a lot of one-off changes that would be wiped anyway
- the organizer has left your organization, so nobody can edit the series
- attendees outside your organization keep seeing the wrong time
Until your computer has the update, hold off on creating new recurring meetings that run past November 1 unless they can't wait.
A Few Habits for November
For important meetings in the first few weeks, put the time in the subject line, for example "Board meeting, 10:00 a.m. Pacific (BC)". Double-check times with anyone outside BC and Alberta. On a Mac, iPhone or Android phone, keep the system up to date; if a time looks off there, check Outlook on the web (outlook.office.com), which shows the correct time once the update is in.
If anything looks wrong or you're not sure which meetings to fix, call us at 1-844-301-4357 or email help@yournucleus.ca. We'd much rather sort out a calendar on October 30 than a missed meeting on November 2.
