North Battleford city council at Thursday's online meeting. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Special council meeting

City to honour Sept. 19 as one-time stat holiday

Sep 15, 2022 | 3:21 PM

The City of North Battleford will honour Sept. 19 as a one-time statutory holiday as a Day of Mourning for the Queen’s funeral.

Council took part in a special council meeting today to discuss the proposal brought forward by administration, and overall supported the resolution.

Acting city manager Brent Nadon said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared Sept. 19 would be a one-time holiday for federal government workers.

“From that point, we would assume that we would be having a holiday based on the language within our collective agreements,” he said. “The majority of our workers have collective agreement language that allows them federal holidays off.”

Nadon said normally with a stat holiday, the city would have emergency workers available and have minimal staff working for the plants and water treatment operations, and City Hall and the city’s facilities would be closed.

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Nadon did note the federal government has since “walked back” the language a little bit for a federal holiday since its initial announcement.

“Instead of an outright declaration of the federal holiday, they are now just saying that all federal employees get the day off for this day of mourning,” he said. “However, based on our language and what other cities are doing, we believe that we should still have the national day of mourning and treat it as a stat holiday for our city.”

Nadon said it is possible the city could not declare it a holiday, but noted there could be repercussions if it was later found that it should have been recognized.

The financial impact to the city having the new stat holiday would be about $60,000, based on the typical cost for a one-day holiday. The cost will be covered by the city’s existing operating budget.

While it will be business as usual for some larger cities such as Regina and Saskatoon, North Battleford council heard smaller cities like Weyburn, Martensville, and Warman in Saskatchewan, and Brandon and Portage la Prairie in Manitoba, with similar contract wording for union employees in their collective agreements as North Battleford’s, are granting the statutory holiday.

Nadon noted that he is not aware of any events taking place on Sept. 19 at city facilities at this time that could create a conflict. But said if there were any situations the city will need to cancel or make changes as needed.

Councillors Bill Ironstand and Kent Lindgren spoke up in favour of granting the stat holiday.

“I do think in this case I would vote in favour that we do observe this day,” Lindgren said. “It’s fitting that we do honour this day as a day of mourning for the city.”

Council briefly left the public portion of the meeting to go in camera to discuss the contract wording for its union collective agreements, before reconvening in open council.

Coun. Kelli Hawtin questioned the city’s requirement to grant the new holiday.

“From what I’m reading, the federal government is giving a day off with pay for federal government employees only,” she said. “It’s not being made a holiday under the Canadian Labour Code. So with that information, I’ll be voting in opposition.”

Ultimately, the majority of council voted in favour of the holiday, with only Hawtin opposed. Coun. Len Taylor was not able to attend the meeting.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow