The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is set to become a statutory holiday in B.C., the government announced Tuesday.
Sept. 30 is already a federal holiday, meaning that workers in federally regulated industries are entitled a day off with pay. A bill introduced in the legislature Tuesday by Labour Minister Harry Bains will make it a provincial one as well.
Bains said the holiday will be observed in B.C. beginning in September 2023.
The holiday was first observed federally in 2021, on a date chosen to coincide with Orange Shirt Day.
It's a result of a call to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which asked the federal government to establish a day to honour residential school survivors, their families and communities.
If the legislation passes as expected, B.C. will join Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon in designating Sept. 30 as a statutory holiday.
Bains said the B.C. law honours the strength and resilience of residential school survivors and remembers the children who never came home.
