City of Winnipeg weighs recommendation to let workers swap holidays
City of Winnipeg weighs recommendation to let workers swap holidays
A recommendation to allow workers to swap holidays for another day more meaningful to them is being considered at city call, but some worry it would be a step backwards.
A new report from the City of Winnipeg's human rights committee of council is recommending employees be allowed to swap one statutory holiday for days that are more meaningful to them - such has Eid, Sundance ceremonies and Hanukkah
Councillor Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River), the committee chair, said Manitoba has grown as newcomers settle.
"Immigrants that are here now have traditionally celebrated those holidays and observances, as well as here in Canada consulting our Indigenous leadership,” Chambers said. “The recommendations that have come forward have been about substituting some of the days that perhaps some individuals don’t observe.”
The report recommends the province amend its employment standards code, allowing employees to substitute statutory holidays for ones that hold more meaning to them.
Derek Rolstone, president of Stone HR Strategies, said employers already make arrangements to accommodate holidays.
“I get calls every day with tough HR issues that have to be solved," Rolstone said. "This issue hasn’t come up.”
He said it would be logistically difficult.
“If people were to take other days off, I think it causes a lot of logistical problems, possible mayhem.”
Chambers said the city recognizes the impact it could have on business.
“If we were to truly be an inclusive city this is something that we’ll have to engage in,” he said.
Dr. Rehman Abdulrehman, who is a clinical psychologist and the founder of the advocacy group WinnLove, wants all major cultural holidays to be celebrated. He says that will amount to eight or 10 days per year.
“Everybody gets those days off. So it’s not about the substitution of days, it’s about literally all of us taking those days,” Abdulrehman said.
He said this will encourage people who do not celebrate the Christian statutory holidays to share their cultures.
The report and its recommendations are set to be discussed at the next committee meeting on Friday.
Rogers Communications Inc's $26-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. cleared the last regulatory hurdle Friday, more than two years after the deal was first announced.
Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, prosecutors and defense lawyers said Thursday, making him the first former U.S. president to face a criminal charge and jolting his bid to retake the White House next year.
The bodies of six people, including one child, were found in the St. Lawrence River Thursday afternoon after an air search involving the Canadian Coast Guard, the Akwesasne Mohawk Police said.
Canadian Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne has approved Rogers Communications Inc.'s $20-billion takeover of rival telecom Shaw Communications Inc., but there are conditions attached and penalties of up to $1 billion if the companies violate them.
Disgraced South African Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius has been denied parole, the lawyer for Reeva Steenkamp's parents said after the parole hearing.
A Toronto man, whose neighbours vanished eight years ago and left their home completely abandoned, said he's fed up living next door to a property that is in complete disarray.
Former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole says he will not seek re-election and plans to resign his seat this spring. The Ontario MP led the Conservatives and served as official Opposition leader from August 2020 until February 2022, when a majority of his caucus voted to remove him from the post.
The vote of a Manhattan grand jury to indict the Republican former president on charges related to hush money payments made on his behalf during his 2016 presidential campaign catapults the now-candidate Donald Trump into a new era of legal risk and complicates his attempts to return to the White House.
The Liberal government's controversial online-streaming bill is one step closer to passing after the House of Commons approved most of the Senate's amendments to the proposed legislation.
The Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry filed a charter challenge against the provincial government for stipulations in its disability program that require seniors to take their Canada Pension Plan (CPP) money out early.
Videos posted on the social media app TikTok showing individuals in Regina experiencing mental health crises are bringing into question the stigma still attached to addictions.
The Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry filed a charter challenge against the provincial government for stipulations in its disability program that require seniors to take their Canada Pension Plan (CPP) money out early.
The bodies of six people, including one child, were found in the St. Lawrence River Thursday afternoon after an air search involving the Canadian Coast Guard, the Akwesasne Mohawk Police said.
As the dust continues to settle around Wednesday's verdict in the Renee Sweeney murder trial attention is now turning to what's next for the case. CTV News spoke to a legal expert and here is what he had to say.
A Toronto man, whose neighbours vanished eight years ago and left their home completely abandoned, said he's fed up living next door to a property that is in complete disarray.
The federal government now expects far more Canadians with long-overdue dental needs to sign up for its insurance plan, and the health minister says that's why the estimated cost has risen by $7 billion.
A 10-year-old boy is dead following a chain-reaction crash on the QEW. The highway was closed for several hours as police worked to piece together exactly what happened.
The six people who were recovered from the St. Lawrence River Thursday consisted of two families from Romania and India who were likely trying to enter the U.S. illegally, police said Friday. A child under three is still missing.
Hydro-Québec annual indexation of its electricity rates will take effect this Saturday, capped at 3 per cent. The Crown corporation says that for residential customers, the monthly impact of the 3 per cent increase would be $2.28 for a five-and-a-half dwelling, $4.27 for a 111-square-metre home, $5.65 for a 158-square-metre home and $6.97 for a 207-square-metre home.
The Quebec government's crackdown on Airbnb has upended Montreal's short-term rental market, leading some to welcome the changes and others scurrying to evade the new rules.
The bodies of six people, including one child, were found in the St. Lawrence River Thursday afternoon after an air search involving the Canadian Coast Guard, the Akwesasne Mohawk Police said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered a brief initial response to the final report from the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) into Canada's worst mass shooting, which claimed the lives of 22 people in Nova Scotia in 2020. Vowing changes will come, here's what Trudeau said in Truro, N.S.
The bodies of six people, including one child, were found in the St. Lawrence River Thursday afternoon after an air search involving the Canadian Coast Guard, the Akwesasne Mohawk Police said.
At Academy Farms in Langley, they raise bison and water buffalo, but this is more than a farm. It's a place that's helping people from across the country find their way out of addiction.
Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, prosecutors and defense lawyers said Thursday, making him the first former U.S. president to face a criminal charge and jolting his bid to retake the White House next year.
The redevelopment planning process was quietly halted earlier this year, and now the Kwikwetlem First Nation is speaking up about what they’d like to see happen on the land where the Riverview Hospital operated for a century.
The father of a Vancouver Island man who was shot twice in the head by police during a dramatic incident in Duncan, B.C., on Tuesday evening is questioning why such lethal action had to be taken by police.
A 32-year-old man from Campbell River, B.C., has been sentenced to four years in prison for the beating death of a 59-year-old homeless man in October 2020.
