Is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation a national holiday in Canada?

The statutory holiday applies to all federal employees and workers in federally regulated workplaces. All federally regulated industries and workplaces will be closed, including banks, post offices and public services.

However, the majority of provinces and territories – with the exception of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut – have not followed the federal government’s move to make the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation a statutory holiday for its workers. British Columbia has also introduced legislation in February to make Sept. 30 a statutory holiday.

Some schools across Canada will also be closed on either the Friday before or the Monday after National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Schools will be closed this year in British Columbia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Nunavut, and select school districts in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

What is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation?

The day is a direct response to The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 80, which called for a federal statutory day of commemoration to acknowledge those affected by residential schools and to educate Canadians.

The House of Commons unanimously supported legislation in June 2021 to make Sept. 30 a federally recognized holiday to mark the history of and intergenerational trauma caused by the residential school system.

The day comes at a critical juncture in history after the findings of unmarked burial sites of former residential-school students across the country touched off an outpouring of support from Canadians. The discovery of the burial sites was deemed by many politicians to be a moment of reckoning for the country and its need to come to terms with what happened in residential schools and the cascading effects the system has on the lives of Indigenous people today.