Incomplete consultations behind Manitoba's delay in treating Orange Shirt Day as a stat holiday

Manitoba's labour minister said making the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation a statutory holiday this year would have ignored the voices of some Indigenous people he consulted. 

On Thursday, the Tory government defended its decision to observe the day — closing schools and non-essential government services and offices — without treating it as a stat holiday.

"When I started to look at drafting legislation over the last year, questions were coming to me about how that day would look," Labour Minister Reg Helwer told reporters.

"It is not appropriate that I am going to answer that question without consultations, then we are just perpetuating the colonialism that this day addresses."

The day — also known as Orange Shirt Day — was established in honour of the experience of Phyllis Webstad, whose gift of clothing from her grandmother was taken away on Webstad's first day at a residential school.

The federal government recently made the day, which falls on Sept. 30, a statutory holiday for its workers and federally regulated workplaces. Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut have followed suit.

Manitoba still plans to make the day a statutory holiday, but not this year. Helwer said the government would draft legislation soon.

At the Manitoba legislature on Thursday, NDP Leader Wab Kinew said his party wanted to give the government a do-over by voting for a private member's bill, introduced earlier this year, to make Orange Shirt Day a statutory holiday, but the PC government voted against it.

Kinew said the gesture made him question the government's sincerity on reconciliation. 

Questioning premier for wearing orange shirt

"I want to know why the premier wore an orange shirt when she voted against making Orange Shirt Day a provincial statutory holiday earlier today," he told the legislature as part of his member's statement.

"I say this without malice, aggression, or even partisanship," Kinew said. "Presumably the premier has some desire to honour residential school survivors, and that's why she chose to wear an orange shirt."

Kinew doesn't think the government should wait. He said there's consensus around business leaders and community activists to make the day a statutory holiday, and it is a call to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

But Helwer said there isn't an agreement on what the day should look like. Some statutory holidays are handled differently in terms of what businesses can open and what their hours can be.

Kinew wouldn't answer what he'd like to see for an Orange Shirt Day as a statutory holiday.