I'm not sure that I want to give them their own time zone

Well, the good news is you don't have to. They already have one. It's called Newfoundland Standard Time.

I was under the impression that the "Newfies" were considerably more than a few hours off.... more like several decades...

I'd say you're right about that, LtS. Except while I agree with you that they are most certainly ahead of the rest of the world in most respects, I don't know if I would agree that it is as much as several decades ;-)