Thank you very much.
This conversation with respect to how we can best honour the tremendous sacrifice that's been made for our country over the years by countless individuals is certainly an important conversation to have, and to continue to have, in terms of how we can best commemorate. Of course, with Remembrance Day itself, it is a holiday for federal employees. Certainly the banks are closed as well, because they're federally regulated. Six provinces and three territories currently have it as what would be considered to be a traditional statutory holiday.
I have pointed repeatedly to the examples of Manitoba and Nova Scotia. They have chosen their own paths. In Manitoba, businesses are shut down until 1 p.m. so that people have the opportunity to go and commemorate. Nova Scotia actually passed its own Remembrance Day Act, stating who would and wouldn't be working that day so that they could have employees be off, yet still have the schools open. That's certainly something I'd encourage every province that currently doesn't do anything for Remembrance Day to go and look at.
Even if I might desire to create a statutory holiday, we do not have that power federally. For me, this was about correcting what I think was a mistake when the Holidays Act was in fact first passed.
Just to briefly correct Mr. Weston, Canada Day and Remembrance Day are both in the same act, the Holidays Act. The only difference is that Canada Day and Victoria Day are listed as legal holidays, whereas Remembrance Day is simply listed as a holiday. That is why we've heard many people talk about it as potentially being viewed as a lesser holiday than Canada Day.