moved for leave to introduce Bill C-251, an act to provide that Remembrance Day be included as a holiday in public service collective agreements.
Madam Speaker, it gives me great pleasure in this new Parliament to introduce this private member's bill. I introduced the same bill in the last Parliament and we almost got it through. It passed second reading but unfortunately had some difficulty in committee. It enjoyed all party support to some degree.
The bill seeks to ensure that Remembrance Day is kept as a statutory holiday under the Public Service Staff Relations Act. It does not in any way try to extend the bill into any of the collective agreements that come under the Canada Labour Code. It reaffirms that Remembrance Day is a holiday, it is a special day of remembrance and it should not be traded away in collective agreements.
The original intention two years ago in introducing a similar bill was because there had been some negotiations in the public sector in which both government and the unions put Remembrance Day as a holiday on the table. We were told at that time that Remembrance Day could have been traded as a holiday, say in lieu of an extra day after Boxing Day.
Remembrance Day truly is not a holiday but a day to remember those who have made the supreme sacrifice so that we and others could be free. This bill seeks to regularize, statutize and ensure that all agreements entered into under the Public Service Staff Relations Act could not make it a tradable holiday. It would have to take place and it would have to be observed on the date, November 11.
(Motion deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed.)