OTTAWA, Ont. – In the past, the second Sunday in March has come and gone with little fanfare, but beginning in 2007 the date will have new significance in the US and a handful of regions in Canada.

In August 2005, US Congress announced the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to extend daylight savings time by four weeks in an effort to conserve energy. Estimates from the study leading up to the new bill pegged savings at about 100,000 barrels of oil per day.

In an effort to stay on schedule with our country’s largest trading partner, a number of provinces will be observing the new time change, which adds three weeks in the spring and one week in the fall.

In the past, daylight savings time has run from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October.

The new dates for changing clocks will run from the second Sunday in March – March 11 in 2007 – to the first Sunday in November.

Earlier this year B.C. announced the province would be observing the new time change; joining Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec.

Saskatchewan does not use daylight savings time, and will likely continue not to observe the time change.

As well, a number of software programs used in today’s technology-reliant marketplace have not been programmed to observe the change, which will force customers to pay extra attention to invoices, calendar appointments and coordinating schedules with associates in time zones following different daylight savings observations.