Talk:Public holidays in Canada

Early comments

Okay. I lived in Ottawa for six years, and never once heard the term "Colonel By Day" for the August long weekend; I always heard it referred to as either "Simcoe Day" or "Civic Holiday". Is there a reference to confirm Colonel By Day? Bearcat 06:44, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

It's official. City Council declared the Civic Holiday Colonel By Day in 1996

council minutes

Actually, I think this is a later resolution confirming an earlier one. Still, you get the idea. --Dhodges 20:32, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

What is a Holiday in Canada

This page has a major problem in that it talks about Canadian Holidays and in reality there is no such thing as the Canadian Constitution says that labour is governed by the provinces and therefore it is up to the provinces to designate the holidays. I have fixed up Canadian Statutory Holiday to more properly reflect that. This should probably be fixed up to, or simply be an overview and then point to both the Canadian Statutory Holiday page and the civic holiday page and perhaps other pages as well. -- Webgeer 07:35, May 18, 2005 (UTC)

I think I've put my finger on why this page is so confusing. It's because it is lumping together several different kinds of holidays: Statutory holidays (also called public holidays) are days where all employers in a province are required to give employees time off, or give them some additional compensation for it (the compensation differs by province); shop closing holidays are holidays which affect certain retail stores, because they are required by law to close; there are days when provincial or federal government offices are closed, because there is an agreement with the provincial or federal government employees' unions to close on that day; there are special days where employers voluntarily grant employees a day off with pay, even though they don't legally have to; and finally, there are traditional holidays like Valentine's Day which are celebrated outside of working hours, without any time off work at all. The confusion over the whole Newfoundland situation started because the government of Newfoundland page consulted for information on Newfoundland holidays was not a description of Newfoundland statutory holidays; it was a page out of the Newfoundland Government's Human Resources manual, which lists all the days which government employees get off from work. There is a list of statutory holidays for all Newfoundlanders under the government's Labour Standards Agency; it consists of New Year's Day, Good Friday, Memorial/Canada Day, Labour Day, Remembrance Day, and Christmas Day. --Country Wife 16:24, 12 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

St. Patricks Day

I should also say I have never heard of a serious proposal to make St Patricks Day a national holiday. I have heard of proposals for Chinese New Year, Flag Day, First Monday in August, A June Holiday, A Prime Ministers Day and others. However, the only references I have heard to St Patricks Day as a National Holiday were clearly jokes. -- Webgeer 07:35, May 18, 2005 (UTC)

Labour Day

Thanks to whomever fixed the statement that "...although not official holidays, ... Labour Day ... are traditionally celebrated by Canadians." To satisfy my own curiosity, I checked the official government web sites for the federal government, each of the ten provinces, and each of the three territories. Except for Nunavut, Labour Day is a "general holiday" or "statutory holiday" in all jurisdictions. All I could confirm for Nunavut is that it's a "government holiday" - presumably it's a holiday for those employed by the government of Nunavut, if not for everybody. -- BCRCornet 00:00, 2005 August 4 (UTC)

Merges with Statutory holiday and Civic holiday pages

I support merging all of these pages into Holidays in Canada, as long as the merged article clearly -- yet succinctly -- recites and lists the differences between this and that. E Pluribus Anthony 03:59, 19 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Good idea. HistoryBA 15:12, 22 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I did a merge with basic edits. We should consider improving the overall format. Shawnc 06:32, 10 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, the format needs some improvements; I found the existing format confusing. Country Wife 04:51, 12 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Victoria Day

Victoria Day always confuses me. The page says it falls on the Monday before May 25 (May 24 being a good day to fall on seeing as it's the actual birthday of Victoria. Hence the popular expression "May 2-4"), but in 2004 May 24th was a Monday and yet Victoria Day was the week before on May 17. At least, that's how it went in Ontario. Does someone just arbitrarily decide ahead of time if it will be the 3rd or 4th Monday of the month?

Pay for stat holiday

This sentence "usually 1½ (known as "time and a half") or 2 times the regular pay" looks wrong. If you read the far right hand column here it indicates that most places pay 1½ plus the regular days wages. That would be 2½ times the regular pay. That's what we get and it's usually called double time and a half. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 07:32, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

St Jean Baptiste

Shouldn't St-Jean Baptiste be renamed to Fête nationale du Québec as it is now officially (I think) called?

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Newfoundland

Newfoundland DOES observe the Federal Civic Holiday on the first Monday in August. We have Federal Government departments here so we have to. Federal Government workers in St. John's were asked whether they wanted to have the holiday on the first Monday in August or on Regatta Day (which by the way is a St. John's holiday only--not a Newfoundland one), and they chose the first Monday in August in order to get the long holiday weekend. You guys should check out your facts before you post information that is not correct. Just because Newfoundland does not have a specific name assigned to the holiday that doesn't mean that Federal Government workers don't get it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by NewfieIdol (talk • contribs) 02:26, 10 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

According to this Government of Canada site "Regatta Day / Civic Holiday" is "fixed by municipal council orders". Sounds to me like it's decided by each municipality. This website reads, "Newfoundland and Labrador: There is no holiday on the first Monday in August in Newfoundland and Labrador although there is Regatta Day, often held on the first Wednesday in August. From the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Labour: Indeed, the first Monday in August is not an official holiday in Newfoundland and Labrador." And finally, this Newfoundland government website reads "one civic holiday, at a time to be determined by the Employer, in the area in which employees reside", implying it's actually the employer (in your case, the Government) who decides. It all seems like an administrative mess to me, but it's your province. :P - BalthCat 03:44, 10 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Easter Monday

I don't know why Easter Monday is on the list. I've checked the provincial websites for BC through to Ontario, and none give Easter Monday as a statutory holiday. In fact, only Ontario's website even gives it a mention; there it says that employers may voluntarily give Easter Monday as a day off with pay, although they are not legally required to do so. I haven't yet checked out Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. Country Wife 04:58, 12 July 2006 (UTC) I think that many places still give that date as a day off - at least many schools do so (maybe the infleuence of Catholic school boards?) j-beda 20:35, 12 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've checked the websites for all provinces, and only Quebec gives Easter Monday any status; this Quebec government website says that employers can give Good Friday off, or Easter Monday, and it's up to the employer to decide which day will be the holiday for their employees. See my comments under the What is a Holiday in Canada section; perhaps we need to add school holidays to that list?--Country Wife 05:33, 14 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Newfoundland Holidays

From what I have heard from other divisions of the Federal Government different departments take the holiday at different times. CRA takes the holiday the first Monday in August, DFO takes it in July, and some in Corner Brook take it in February so they can have a holiday during their Winter Carnival week. As for the Regatta Day in August only St. John's gets that holiday and it has been like that for the 100 some odd years that the Regatta has been running.

We get Easter Monday here in Newfoundland too. I work with the Federal Government seasonal and we get Good Friday and Easter Monday.