The New Brunswick government says they are continuing to review the pros and cons of instituting a February holiday, but it’s an idea that some business leaders may not be in favour of.
READ MORE: Family Day for New Brunswick? The government is considering it
While seven Canadian provinces observe a February holiday, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick do not.
In New Brunswick, the provincial government began floating the idea of instituting a new holiday last year but they still have yet to make a decision for or against.
“We’re still speaking to many of the stakeholders, we understand how great it would be to have a Family Day here in New Brunswick,” explained Premier Brian Gallant. “We think there are many merits to that, but we also want to make sure that we’re talking with the business community, talking with other stakeholders to see what type of impact it could have on them.”
Joel Richardson, vice president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, NB & PEI Division said those impacts would be substantial.
“It’s just a lot of extra costs from the manufacturer’s perspective at a time when the economy really isn’t doing too well,” he said. “New Brunswick’s productivity overall, when you look at how we stack up to the rest of the country, our productivity is actually fairly low. We need to do more work to get more output.”
“Adding more lost time from a business perspective isn’t necessarily a good idea”
Gallant said there’s currently no timeline for a decision as they continue to weigh the benefits of the issue.
“We want to make sure that if we ever do go forward with it that we do everything we can to mitigate the potential negative impacts on some of the stakeholders,” Gallant said. “But our government is still committed to looking deeply into this issue.”
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