With only 29 days before Canada’s inaugural National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, New Brunswick has decided not to make it a provincial holiday.
That means employers are not obligated to give the day off.
All provincial services, including schools, will be business as usual on Sept. 30, while all private companies will have to decide whether to close and give employees the day off.
In making the announcement Tuesday, Premier Blaine Higgs urged New Brunswickers to take time to reflect.
“Our government encourages everyone to use this day as an opportunity to consider what each of us can do as individuals to advance reconciliation and help to create a better, more inclusive province” he said in the statement emailed to CBC. “While September 30th will be observed in New Brunswick, it will not be a statutory holiday.”
In June, the federal government passed legislation to make Sept. 30 a federal statutory holiday, which was one of the 94 calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
In June, Federal Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault told the Senate the objective of the new holiday is to create an opportunity for Canadians to learn about and reflect on a dark chapter in their country’s history and to commemorate the survivors, their families and their communities — as called for by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Indigenous leaders. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
The decision means all federally regulated employees will be entitled to a paid day off.
Everyone else is governed by provincial employment laws, so by failing to make it a provincial holiday, New Brunswick has left the decision to individual employers, according to Fredericton employment lawyer Jessica Bungay.
“There is no legal requirement for it to be a holiday for employers that are provincially regulated, and that would be most employers in New Brunswick or in Atlantic Canada,” she said.
“I know that some businesses are making the choice to close their businesses on Sept. 30, despite the fact that they are provincially regulated and it is not a required holiday for them.”
The president of the largest union within New Brunswick’s civil service said they had been waiting for official word from the province.
“We have brought it up to government, but we have not been given official word on whether or not they will honour the day,” Susie Proulx-Daigle said in a statement emailed Tuesday before the premier’s announcement.
“Given that it is recognized as a national holiday and the significance behind the day, we expect it to be honoured at a provincial level.”
Business owners have been waiting
Private businesses were also waiting for direction from the province, said John Wishart, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Moncton.
“The federal government has recognized it and declared it a federal statutory holiday, but that does not imply that you need to observe it in New Brunswick.”
He said businesses are now left with the decision of how to observe the day — “whether you observe it with a workplace moment of silence or recognition ceremony or that sort of thing, or whether you decide to close your doors.”
Individual municipalities to make the call
St. George had already decided to observe the holiday officially, explained chief administrative officer Jason Gaudet. All town offices will be closed and employees will be paid for the day off.
Fredericton and Moncton, meanwhile, aren’t publicly saying what they plan to do, while Saint John officials did not acknowledge the request for information emailed on Monday.
Shasta Stairs, the communications co-ordinator for Fredericton, said, “We’re currently reviewing future policies around the new federal holiday on Sept. 30 with the intent to bring forward a recommendation to council in the coming weeks.”
Moncton will be informing its employees “shortly,” according to Isabelle LeBlanc, the director of communications for the City of Moncton.
“It would not be appropriate to discuss this topic without having informed them first,” LeBlanc wrote in an email.
A day to reflect
Whether you get the day off or not, the executive director of the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs Secretariat said he’d like people to take time to commemorate the day as it was intended — an opportunity to reflect on truth and reconciliation and the legacy of residential schools.
“It’s a day to reflect, basically, and even if you don’t have the day off, you just reflect about why the holiday was created,” said John G. Paul.
John G. Paul, the executive director of the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs Secretariat, would eventually like to see Sept. 30 become a paid holiday for all employees, not just federally regulated ones. (Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs Secretariat)
He said he hopes the day evolves into an opportunity to remember, similar to Remembrance Day for veterans. And eventually, he said he’d like the day to be a paid holiday for all workers, not just federally regulated ones.
“I’m hoping this day becomes a sombre memory of what occurred to Indigenous people across Canada,” said Paul.
Schools open for Orange Shirt Day
Schools will remain open, providing “the education system an additional opportunity for students and teachers to have open discussions about First Nations history and realities,” said Education Department spokesperson Danielle Elliott.
Sept. 30 has become Orange Shirt day in recent years, and “we’ve been pleased with the high rates of participation across the school system, including outstanding projects and discussions about Orange Shirt Day,” Elliott said.
“We strongly encourage students and educators across the province to participate in Orange Shirt Day and promote an understanding of the immense impact these schools continue to have on First Nation peoples and work to promote inclusion and diversity across the education system.”
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
