Skip to content

Unions renew call for February stat

THE BC Federation of Labour says it's time BC joined other provinces in declaring a February statutory holiday.

"Families in provinces east of us and in the states north and south of us will enjoy a long weekend in February," federation president Jim Sinclair says. "BC is one of the few jurisdictions in North America that has no public holiday between New Year’s Day and Easter."

"A February holiday was originally proposed by Liberal MLA Robert Chisholm in 1994 and we are still waiting for it,” says Sinclair. "All the Liberal leadership hopefuls should endorse this, not just Christy Clark."

A Statistics Canada study found that Canadian workers in 2005 were working longer and as a result were spending 45 minutes less each day with their families on work days than they did in the 1980s.

“We know that people are working longer to make ends meet. Many low-wage workers are holding down two and three jobs to pay their bills,” Sinclair added. “BC needs to do what other provinces and states have done. They need to give hard working British Columbians a February holiday.”