Is Earth Hour starting to lose its appeal with the Canadian public?

Numbers provided by electricity companies just days after Earth Hour create a perception that the global campaign to get consumers to shut off their lights for one hour is losing some of its punch in Canada.

On Saturday, millions of homes, business, public buildings and monuments around the world observed Earth Hour beginning at 8:30 p.m. local time.

Here in Canada, environmental groups and electricity companies gave consumers a big push in the lead-up to March 28th event. Broadly, it is a symbolic show of support for the environment and action on climate change.

So what happened to electricity usage in parts of the country for that one hour?

British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland all recorded a reduction in electricity usage with Yukon recording its best Earth Hour reduction since Yukon Energy started monitoring Earth Hour usage five years ago.

While BC Hydro, the main electricity utility provider, recorded a 15-megawatt drop over the hour, Ontario witnessed a 100-megawatt drop which is about the average peak demand of the city of Kingston.

Newfoundlands 33-megawatt reduction is less than last years 38-megawatt drop but it still adds up to shutting off 825,000 laptop computers or 73,326 clothes washers, or taking 4,700 electrically-heated homes off the grid, according to Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro.

In Alberta, Edmonton recorded a 6.3 per cent drop while in Calgary the change was unnoticeable.

But where utility companies have kept records over several years, the numbers tell a different story.

British Columbia, which has witnessed Earth Hour electricity reductions ranging from one to two percent of overall provincial electricity load during previous Earth Hour events, saw a reduction this year of only .2 per cent.

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Is Earth Hour starting to lose its appeal with the Canadian public?