PostgreSQL Migration – Challenges from Postgres 8.1 to 9.4 with PostGIS

Turns out to have been a bug in the GEOS package-- there is an announcement on the postgis-users list. The link to the bug report is here.

Seems you are running in a weakness of the query planner: The best index is sometimes not used for joining tables. Had a similar problem here:
Algorithm for finding the longest prefix (Chapter "Failed attempt with text_pattern_ops")

In Postgres 9.3 You could try this version with LEFT JOIN LATERAL:

SELECT *
FROM  (
    SELECT coord
    FROM   taduler.postal_code
    WHERE  postal_code = 'T1K0T4'
    LIMIT  1
    ) pc
LEFT JOIN LATERAL (
    SELECT *
    FROM   public.timezones tz
    WHERE  ST_Intersects(pc.coord, tz.geom)
   ) tz ON TRUE;

Something similar Worked for @ypercube's solution in this related answer.
LATERAL requires Postgres 9.3+, though.

In PostgreSQL 9.1, it might help to encapsulate the first query in a CTE, but I doubt it. (Don't have a PostGis installation here to test.):

WITH pc AS (
    SELECT coord
    FROM   taduler.postal_code
    WHERE  postal_code = 'T1K0T4'
    LIMIT  1
    )
SELECT *
FROM   pc
JOIN   public.timezones tz ON ST_Intersects(pc.coord, tz.geom);

A plpgsql function to encapsulate two separate queries should certainly do the trick:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION f_get_tz(_pc text)
  RETURNS SETOF public.timezones AS
$func$
DECLARE
   _coord geom;
BEGIN

SELECT coord
INTO  _coord
FROM   taduler.postal_code
WHERE  postal_code = _pc
LIMIT  1;

RETURN QUERY
SELECT *
FROM   public.timezones tz
WHERE  ST_Intersects(_coord, tz.geom);

END
$func$  LANGUAGE plpgsql;

Call:

SELECT * FROM f_get_tz('T1K0T4');