Four years after the Ontario government created Family Day, many business owners are still quietly fuming about the mandatory shutdown of commercial activity on the holiday.
Independent businesses have argued that the provincial statutory holiday causes them to lose a day's revenue on the third Monday of February every year.
Gerry LePage, executive director of Bank Street Promenade BIA, remembers the business community’s negative reaction to the holiday’s implementation in 2008.
“Anywhere from 50 to 100 million dollars could be lost in revenue across the province on that one day,” he says.
LePage adds that businesses have adjusted their business models to accommodate the holiday and that prices could “marginally go up.”
For some businesses barely treading water, Family Day is just one more hit, says Louis-Martin Parent, policy analyst for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
“It may honestly be the difference between opening and closing for some of them who have been in the red for a few years,” he says.
Parent says businesses have finally adapted to some extent in the four years since the holiday was created.
“One thing with small businesses, generally speaking, is that they’re quite resilient. They might not like the fact that they have to be closed, but now that it’s been a few years they’ve probably gotten used to it,” says Parent.
Parent adds that some businesses have embraced the holiday. “Generally speaking, everybody likes a day off,” he says, “it helps employee moral.”
Yasir Naqvi, Liberal MPP for Ottawa Centre, says people need a break between New Year’s Day and Easter.
“Employees who get time off may work even harder when they get back on the job,” he says.
Naqvi added that a mid-winter holiday could spark an increase in tourism and leisure, something that should help businesses.
Naqvi invites everyone to join him at McNabb Outdoor Rink on the corner of Bronson and Gladstone for his annual Ottawa Centre Family Day Skate Party from 1 p.m to 3 p.m.
Mayor Jim Watson is having a similar celebration on the Rink of Dreams outside Ottawa City Hall from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
On Family Day, which falls this year on Feb. 20, federal employees and those who don’t fall under the provincial act will be heading to work. Those include all Crown corporations, including banks, radio and television stations, and airlines.
Ottawa recreation centres, such as pools, skating rinks, and community centres will be open.
The Byward Market, and the Rideau Centre will also remain open; but libraries, courts, and other city services will be closed. The city has added additional family swims at many pools, and federally run museums will remain open.
Winterlude celebrations will continue on the main sites.