Daylight Saving Time to be considered
Premier McKeeva Bush announced the upcoming study of a switch to Daylight Saving Time in the Cayman Islands during his budget address Friday.
The Cayman Islands currently runs on US Eastern Standard Time for the entire year. When the US makes the switch to “jump ahead” one hour in the spring, Cayman stays on Standard Time – meaning it shifts an hour back from the east coast of the United States.
Consequently, when sunlight still beams on the eastern US at 8pm during the summer months, Cayman’s shores and warm waters are wrapped in darkness.
Premier Bush said representations have been made from several sectors of the business community regarding the “jump ahead” to Eastern Daylight Time. “Several organisations such as the Chamber of Commerce, the Cayman Islands Tourism Association and Cayman Finance have indicated their support for this possibility,” Mr. Bush said.
Among the benefits of a switch to Daylight Saving Time listed by Mr. Bush are:
The financial services sector would be in sync with its major New York client base.
The arrival and departure times from most US airports would remain in step year round.
From a cruise tourism perspective, there would be slightly longer stays in port during the summer months.
An extra hour of daylight could encourage more physical activity through outdoor exercise.
The Premier did not state whether he supported the change but said he would set up a committee that would “fully appreciate the benefits and drawbacks” of the time change.
The group – which has yet to be selected – would report to Cabinet members at a later date.
Hot topic
Whether to switch to Daylight Saving Time has been one of the more controversial matters debated in Cayman this year.
A recent online poll of 612 people done by the Caymanian Compass was split nearly down the middle.
Some 36 per cent of those responding supported the switch to Daylight Savings Time, while about 38 per cent were against it.
Of those who were a bit more undecided, the “probably would support it” category got 6.4 per cent of the vote, while the “probably would not support it” garnered 11.4 per cent.
About 3.6 per cent of those voting were unsure.
Online respondents gave several reasons for their answers.
“All [Daylight Savings Time] will do is to increase our electricity bills more than what they already are,” one person commented.
“Stop trying to change things in the Cayman Islands to accommodate others.”
“It’s about time we start adopting, or at least considering, things from other countries that are actually beneficial to us,” another respondent said.
Lobbying effort
Cayman Islands business groups have been seeking the time change on and off since the middle of the last decade. In recent months, that lobbying effort has become more intense as the local economic situation has worsened.
Residents Kevin Doyle and Noel March have been bringing up the issue at meetings for about the past two years and recently told the Caymanian Compass they had letters backing the change from the Chamber, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority and the Cayman Islands Tourism Association.
Staying on Eastern Standard Time means Cayman clocks are an hour behind the US east cost for about eight months a year.
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We do not need more summer heat and higher A/C bills – and what tourist wants to eat dinner out in the evening at 90 degrees?
By adding one more hour of sunlight to your day will not change your CUC bill unless you get up and turn it on for another hour.
The country is in a total financial mess and if we all want to continue our own lifestyles and having basic things like schools, roads and hospitals then we need to move with the rest of the world – they are not free.
Would daylight saving time really give us more daylight hours? The daylight hours would remain the same, only we will have daylight earlier in the morning, and some people like this in order to go walking and enjoy the early hours of daylight instead of the late hours of daylight.
I would suggest that businesses who need to be in sync with their business partners in other parts of the world can open their offices earlier – there are no rules, that I know of, against that, and also the stores along the waterfront can open earlier if any passengers get off of their ships that early. That would also help alleviate traffic, when not everyone is travelling to town at the same time.
What a fantastic idea, this would really make a difference not only to make business more efficient but to lengthen our evenings and make sporting and leisure activities more enjoyable. The longer summer evenings in the UK help to lift peoples tempraments and should provide a boost to the entertainment industry too