Thank you, Mr. Ray and Mr. Watts, for attending today.
I come from Guelph. I'm on the veterans committee. While it may not rival the commemorations in Oakville or Bronte or Kitchener, we also celebrate Remembrance Day quite vigorously in Guelph. We start by meeting at Colonel John McCrae's home in Guelph on Water Street, and then we move to the IODE statue beside our train station and speak there. Then several thousand people gather at the Sleeman Centre and we commemorate there, including the firing of guns, speeches, wonderful music from our local orchestra, marching to colours, everyone from the.... If it wasn't for the members of the Legion in Guelph, Colonel John McCrae Branch, it wouldn't happen. It's really that simple.
So we are grateful to the members of the Legion and everyone who's served. I've said this before, no amount of commemoration will adequately honour the sacrifices that have been made, and no amount of compensation, frankly, could properly compensate those who died and those who came back to tell their stories.
When this bill came out, the first thing I did was I went to Mr. Harris and I asked if this created a statutory holiday. He said, no, and asked why. I said I was going to be honest, the people in Guelph don't want a statutory holiday. Most of the people I talked to didn't want it to be a statutory holiday, meaning schools and businesses are closed. All for the same reasons you folks have cited today.
Having said that, I checked with the library. The Library of Parliament is very kind in helping parliamentarians like us around the table who don't always understand words that are written in law. They said the Holidays Act does not entitle employees to a day off with pay, even with the use of the word “legal”.
I'm as confounded by that as you are, but I understood that it doesn't create a statutory holiday. So I went back to the people I'd spoken to who don't want a statutory holiday and I asked how they felt if it didn't create a statutory holiday. They said that made sense.
You were here, Mr. Ray—I know Mr. Watts wasn't—when Wilma McNeill spoke earlier today. On Monday, Michael Blais from the Canadian Veterans Advocacy spoke, and he said that what's important to them in this legislation is that Remembrance Day is never considered a lesser national holiday than Victoria Day or Canada Day, which is in the legislation.
This elevates it not to a statutory holiday but to a day of recognition as important as Thanksgiving and Victoria Day, which I think it deserves, if not more.
Having said that as parliamentarians, knowing that it's not going to be a statutory holiday, we will elevate the day to be as important as Thanksgiving and Victoria Day. Other provinces and territories have statutory holidays because they make the law on that, but interestingly I've been advised by the Library of Parliament that it's not a statutory holiday in Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, or Manitoba. It's up to those provinces to decide whether schools and businesses are closed, so far they've done other things.
Knowing what you know now that we could elevate this to a holiday of recognition, not of days off work, don't you think it behooves us to honour our veterans and elevate that day so it has the same profile legislatively without giving people a day off work or school? I'm not trying to wordsmith and I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, I just feel compelled to say it deserves that. Others have told me that, knowing no day off school or work.
Now, Mr. Watts, can I ask you and then I'll ask Mr. Ray what your response would be?