What Happened?
British Columbia is changing its time-zone designation, while the time shown on clocks within British Columbia will remain the same.
- This means our relationship with other time zones will change by one hour.
- Calendars, meeting invitations, room bookings and scheduling tools rely on time-zone information to calculate and display meeting times.
- Each system needs to handle the change according to how it manages time zones, dates and existing meetings.
| Old British Columbia Time Zone |
New British Columbia Time Zone |
| (UTC -8:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) |
(UTC -7:00) Pacific Time (British Columbia) |
Unfortunately, this change does not adjust the time of any calendar meetings or appointments you have in your calendar, which will likely have been set to the old time zone (UTC-08:00). This is resulting in discrepancies where meetings are scheduled for the wrong times for some attendees.
What Is Most Impacted
The greatest impact is expected where schedules involve people, systems or bookings across different time zones. Focus attention on:
- External stakeholder meetings
- Complex Executive and leadership calendars
- Meeting room bookings
- Events and scheduled activities involving outside system
What We've Done To Help
We've deployed an update to move your computer and Outlook calendar to the new Pacific Coast Time (PCT) time zone. If your computer cannot yet receive the PCT time zone, it will be temporarily set to Yukon time, which has the same UTC-07:00 offset. This update will be delivered via Windows Update to VIU employee computers, so make sure you check for updates before November 1, 2026. To check for updates, follow these steps:
Windows Computers
- Click Start and then Settings (gear icon).
- Click Update & Security.
- Make sure Windows Update is selected on the left-hand side of the screen, then click the Check for updates button.
MacOS Computers
Instructions on how to check your Mac for software updates can be found here: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/108382
Important: We cannot automatically update your existing calendar events to the new time zone. Please keep reading for steps to check and update calendar entries on or after November 1.
What You Need To Do
First, please make sure your computer has the latest available update. When your computer receives notice to restart, please do so as soon as possible. (This is always good practice)
To know what you need to do, you need to know where in the process your computer is. The easiest way to do that is to check your current time zone:
- Right click on the clock in the lower-right hand of the screen of your computer and click Adjust date and time.
- Check the Time Zone setting displayed on the Date & time settings page.
If your time zone shows (UTC-07:00) Yukon, or any (UTC-08:00) time zone eg:
- Perform the above updates.
- Wait until the next day, then confirm the change has taken place.
- If the time zone is now correct, skip to the next section.
If your computer shows (UTC:-07:00) Pacific Time (British Columbia) eg:
You can now check your meetings with the knowledge that your computer is 'correct'.
Checking your meetings post-update
If your time zone settings are correct, your next concern is checking for appointments that may have been scheduled prior to the update but occur (or repeating meetings that have recurrences that will occur) after November 1, 2026.
- Meetings created prior to the update, that take place before November 1st: with no recurrences:
|
You do not need to make changes to these meetings. |
- Meetings created prior to the update, that take place after November 1st: (including recurrences)
|
These meetings will show as 1 hour later than expected. The organizer will need to adjust these meetings to the correct time. Instructions on how to do so can be found below. |
- Meetings created after the update:
|
You do not need to make changes to these meetings. |
Instructions for how to correct mistimed appointments can be found at the links below:
Other Things You Can Do
- Include the intended BC meeting time in the subject line for important meetings on or after November 1.
- If you are not the organizer for an incorrectly scheduled meeting, let the organizer know.
- For meetings where you are not the organizer, add a blank appointment in your calendar for 1 hour prior. This will "hold" your time in case the meeting has not yet been adjusted.
Additional Resources