As British Columbians get ready to kick back and take a breather this weekend for Family Day, a group representing business in Burnaby is calling for the date of the stat holiday to change.
On Friday, the Burnaby Board of Trade sent out a press release calling on the province to align B.C.’s Family Day holiday, which currently falls on the second Monday of February, with the holidays of neighbouring provinces which fall on the third Monday, to better facilitate trade and business.
In a letter to Jobs Minister Shirley Bond, BBOT’s president and CEO Paul Holden noted having a holiday separate from six other provinces — and the whole of the U.S. — has shown to have negative impacts on the operations of businesses across B.C.
“For companies which conduct business in other parts of Canada or in the United States, this misalignment of holidays creates a barrier to commerce and trade,” Holden said in the letter. “When offices in B.C. are closed for Family Day but firms are operating in all neighbouring jurisdictions, local businesses are unable to service their interprovincial or American customers. Then, come the third Monday in February, the employees of those local businesses may be largely sitting idle, unable to reach those same clients who are then closed due to their holidays.”
The BBOT release suggested when the holiday was first proposed in 2011, there was support for the non-aligning holiday, but after four years opinions are beginning to shift.
“Through consultation with our policy committee, our board of directors, and our over 1,100 members, we have heard clearly that local businesses would prefer Family Day be aligned with other February holidays,” Holden said.
BBOT also noted Tourism Burnaby has reviewed the proposal and also supports aligning Family Day.
