Introduction

This article is intended to provide details on how to handle BC’s change to Pacific Time (PCT), causing situations Outlook calendar events to have the incorrect date and/or time.

Which time zone to use?

Dawson Creek, Chetywnd, and Tumbler Ridge have been observing UTC-7 year round. This now aligns with most of British Columbia, where Pacific Time (PCT) is now observed.

It is recommended that you use one of the following time zone options for local time, as they are functionally equivalent:

• Pacific Time (British Columbia)
• America/Dawson_Creek (or Dawson Creek, Canada)
• America/Phoenix (or Phoenix, USA)

IMPORTANT: DO NOT use Pacific Time (US & Canada). This time zone observes seasonal changes due to daylight savings time, and may result in calendar events being displayed an hour off depending on the time of year.

Set the time zone on your Mac

1. Go to Apple menu > System Settings > General > Date & Time.
2. Verify Set time and date automatically is enabled.
3. Check Set time zone automatically using your current location if desired, and that the displayed city is accurate. Be advised that this setting will change your time zone as you travel automatically, and requires Location Services to be active.
4. Alternatively, if you do not want to automatically set your time zone based on location, uncheck Set time zone automatically using your current location, then manually fill in the Time zone city field.

Set the time zone in Outlook for Mac

Outlook for Mac has its own time zone settings. Please check the following:

1. Open Outlook > Settings, then Work Schedule under Calendar.
2. Inspect the primary/default time-zone control. Use one of the time zone options recommended above. Do not confuse comparison zones with the primary zone. Turning on Time zone 2 or Time zone 3 adds calendar time bars only; it does not repair the zone stored on a meeting.
3. To verify the settings are correct, create an unsent test meeting. Show its time zone selector using Time Zones in the meeting/appointment controls where available, and confirm the zone attached to the event defaults to the correct option.

Set the time zone in Outlook Online

1. Log in to Outlook Online using your SD59 account.
2. Select Settings > General > Language and time.
3. Verify the time zone option is one of the recommended options above. If needed, click the Change link, and enter a recommended option.
4. Select Settings > Calendar > View.
5. Under Time zones, verify the time zone option under the Display my calendar in time zone field is one of the recommended options above. If needed, change this field to a recommended option.
6. Review When I travel across time zones, ask me if I want to update my time zone. It is a prompt, not unconditional automatic switching.

Review existing meetings

Changing your default zone does not update the time zone set for existing appointments or meeting series. Review events scheduled in advance and recurring meetings continuing on or after November 1, 2026. If you are the organizer, you will be able to make corrections and send updates to other participants.

Before editing a series: Record cancellations, moved occurrences and other exceptions. Changing a recurring series’ time-zone settings resets exceptions; you will need to recreate them afterward.

To correct the time zone for an existing event:

1. Open the affected event and enter its editing view; for recurrence, choose the series.
2. Expand the start/end time settings and use the time-zone globe/selector to inspect both zones. For meetings intended for local time, select one of the recommended time zone options above, then verify and explicitly restore the intended start and end clock times before saving or sending.

Do not bulk-shift every appointment. A meeting anchored to the wrong time zone is likely to show the incorrect time for others that have different locale settings. Inform meeting organizers if you notice discrepancies to the organizer rather than moving your own copy.

Troubleshooting and escalation