Holiday Monday almost anywhere in North America except Quebec

Workers in Quebec are entitled to eight public holidays per year, one less than their Ontario neighbours.

Skaters enjoy the ice rink at La Fontaine Park in Montreal. (File photo)

The Old Port of Montreal was bustling with activity on the weekend as many tourists from the United States and outside Quebec took advantage of the long end week to skate and discover the metropolis.

If we hadn't had this long weekend, we wouldn't have come and we wouldn't have had the opportunity to explore the city, points out Jorge Raad, a Bostonian visiting Montreal with his wife for a few days. .

Between the holidays and Easter, however, Quebec goes it alone.

Other provinces except Newfoundland and Labrador are pausing for Family Day (Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan), Islander Day (Island) Prince Edward Island), Louis Riel Day (Manitoba) and Heritage Day (Nova Scotia). As for the Americans, they celebrate Presidents' Day.

Sounds like a good idea to me. There's Mother's Day and Father's Day, so why not Family Day? says an American tourist enjoying the long weekend in Montreal. It's a good time, two months after the holiday season, adds his wife.

“Especially at this time of year, there is a holiday missing from the calendar. I think it would give a little boost to people who need a break after working hard since Christmas. »

— Montreal's Renaud Faucher between two running steps

There's spring break for the kids soon, but for us, when we work, we don't have that time to go out and do activities outside, adds Léonie Hottote.

>

Prime Minister François Legault has already stated that he is against the addition of a public holiday following the death of the Queen as well as in 2021, when adding by Ottawa from a holiday for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. The costs would be too high, he argues.

We are not currently analyzing the addition of additional public holidays, the press attaché for the Minister of Labor, Jean Boulet, said in writing on Sunday.

Family, Louis Riel or Heritage Day. Eight Canadian provinces enjoy a long weekend. But not in Quebec. The Legault government has already closed the door to the idea of ​​adding a holiday to the calendar. And for entrepreneurs, the cost would be too high in terms of productivity. But the idea seduces many Quebecers. A report by Frédéric Pepin.

The impact of the addition of a public holiday on the Quebec economy is estimated at approximately 750 million dollars by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), says its director of provincial affairs for Quebec, Francis Bérubé. The bill rises to 3.6 billion for the whole country.

CFIB believes that the current number of public holidays is satisfactory and that companies wishing to improve work-family balance, for example, and who are able to adapt the organization of work can achieve this with other levers.

For us, [an additional holiday] is not welcome. It's a loss of a day of productivity for companies.

For all businesses, adding a public holiday has the potential to have a negative impact on the economy. Taken on a case-by-case basis, for some companies there might be beneficial effects, but for others not. It all depends on the organization of work, the type of company and the type of activity, Francis Bérubé nuances.

A holiday, he adds, is a policy that will apply to all companies regardless of their entrepreneurial reality, so it is not necessarily an avenue deemed positive by our members.

>

He observes a change in the labor market in terms of flexible working hours and work-family balance. We are seeing a lot of changes in the organization of work that come to meet these needs, especially with telework.

Some companies adapt working hours to allow their employees to take advantage, for example, spring break. This attractiveness measure promotes the retention of personnel in a context of labor shortages, continues Mr. Bérubé.

• Yukon: 11 statutory holidays
• British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Nunavut and Yukon: 10 public holidays
• Ontario and Alberta: 9 public holidays
• Quebec, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island : 8 statutory holidays
• Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia : 6 statutory holidays

With information from< /em> Frédéric Pépin