One of the people behind the ‘Stop the Time Change’ movement is excited by the results of the province’s survey on stopping the time change.

But Bob Dieno also admits he was a little surprised to see that 93 per cent of the 223,273 people who took the survey were in favour of doing away with the twice annual time change.

“Every survey that we’ve every kind of seen done most of it came around 70 to 75 per cent in favour of staying on DST,” he said. “But 93 per cent really sends a strong message to the government that British Columbians want to see this practice stopped.”

Dieno says he understands why 54 per cent of people who responded want the province’s clocks aligned with neighbouring jurisdictions like Washington, Oregon, California, and even the Yukon.

“We all deal with the west coast quite regularly, but I would like to see with this result, B.C. be a result instead of a follower and just go out there and say ‘we’re going to stop this!” Dieno added. “The other jurisdictions will follow. Everybody is going to follow eventually.”

The province says with the exception of students, support for year-round daylight time was higher than 90 per cent in all regions of the province, as well as with industry and occupational groups.

Premier John Horgan’s office says officials in Washington, Oregon, and California are in various stages of writing or enacting legislation to adopt year-round daylight time, but those states requires federal approval before they can act.

As B.C. determines its next steps, Horgan says the survey results will be considered alongside responses from other provinces and the western states.