A no-brainer': Some bosses happily giving staff Monday off along with Canada Day
Anyone who works Monday to Friday and is keen for a long weekend this Canada Day has likely had to do a bit of calendar juggling to cope with the ill-timed holiday.
Article content
The stat day falls on a Tuesday this year, forcing many to work an odd Monday squeezed between days off, unless they burn a vacation day to eliminate the wonky schedule.
Article content
Some startup companies say they're calling Monday a wash and giving staff a paid day off in order to smooth out the mid-week quirk and create a long weekend.
Article content
Article content
It might not make sense on paper, said Klarify founder Moody Abdul, but he said he believes in prioritizing employee happiness.
Article content
Article content
'It's that, 'if I take care of you, you'll take care of us' kind of mentality,' Abdul said.
Connecting the Canada Day holiday to the preceding weekend is just one way to demonstrate worker appreciation, said Abdul, whose company provides AI-driven note-taking and administrative tools to therapists.
Article content
For those in Quebec, it's the second holiday Tuesday in a row, after Saint-Jean Baptiste Day on June 24 forced many Fete nationale celebrants to grapple with their own odd workweek.
Article content
But with Canada Day following so close behind, it's not uncommon for Quebecers to take the whole week off between the two holidays, much the way many treat the stretch between Christmas and New Year's.
Article content
Of course not every employer can offer such accommodations, and full-time workers with less shift leeway will have to choose to take a vacation day or just make do with an odd schedule next week.
Ani Siddique, a research assistant at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, said he asked far in advance for Monday off in order to get ahead of colleagues with the same idea.
Article content
Article content
'I had to ask for it but I planned for things one or two months in advance,' he said.
Article content
Article content
Morad Affifi, who sat in a downtown park after a shift Friday, said the majority of his planned Canada Day festivities take place over the weekend but he, too, dipped into his vacation bank to avoid working Monday.
Article content
Suze Mason, co-founder of the digital health platform Sprout Family, said her five staff members have the Monday off and she didn't expect the move to have much of an operational impact on her company.
Article content
Sprout Family helps co-ordinate fertility care through workplace benefits programs. She said many of its clients, including larger Canadian organizations, plan to treat Monday like a holiday.
'It felt like it was the right business decision to give our employees a day to rest and recharge, while also not having as much of a direct impact on the business,' Mason said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
35 minutes ago
- CTV News
DHL Express Canada workers ratify new agreement, move to end strike and lockout
DHL containers are transported on the tarmac at John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Hamilton, Ont., Wednesday, March 26, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nick Iwanyshyn TORONTO — Canada's largest private sector union says a three-week lockout and strike at DHL Express Canada is due to end because workers ratified a new agreement. Unifor says the four-year agreement reached with the delivery company was ratified with 72 per cent support from members. It includes a 15.75 per cent wage hike, pension increases for hourly workers and a new pension for owner-operators. The agreement also features increases to short- and long-term disability payments, new mental-health benefits, a rise in severance and updated language around artificial intelligence, robotics and work-from-home policies. The agreement impacts more than 2,100 DHL Express Canada employees who work as truck drivers, couriers and in warehouse and clerical roles. They were locked out after midnight on June 8 and went on strike hours later. Unifor now says DHL workers will return to work after the ratification but offered no definite timeline. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 28, 2025. The Canadian Press
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Hudson's Bay landlords don't want Ruby Liu to move in, but retailer still has a shot
Social Sharing A group of Hudson's Bay's landlords don't want to transfer more than two dozen leases to B.C. billionaire Weihong (Ruby) Liu, but the department store still has a chance to get its way. The Bay, which filed for creditor protection in March, ran a process over the last several months to find buyers for leases belonging to it and Saks Canada. It agreed to sell up to 28 spaces to Liu. Three leases were transferred to her without any hiccups because they're in B.C. malls she owns, but another 25 are at properties held by a who's who of Canadian commercial real estate firms. Landlords for 23 of those sites oppose the transfer. Several have said in court they've been "very troubled" with their interactions with Liu and have had "no productive discussions, no meaningful disclosure." Liu insists if the court hands her the leases, landlords will warm to her and her plan to open a new department store in their properties. While the disagreement could serve as a roadblock to the Bay closing on its agreement with Liu, lawyers not involved in the case say the retailer has another route it can take to get a deal done. That route lies in changes to the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) — Canada's main insolvency law — made in 2009, said Jeff Lee, a Saskatoon-based partner at MLT Aikins LLP. The changes laid out three criteria courts must consider when asked to assign leases to a new tenant. WATCH | Who is Ruby Liu? Who is Hudson's Bay benefactor and billionaire Ruby Liu? 3 days ago Duration 6:16 Ruby Liu, a billionaire with a big vision, now has legal permission to take over the leases of three former Hudson's Bay department stores located at three malls already under her ownership. For more on the new Bay benefactor, we're joined by retail analyst Carl Boutet. The first is whether or not the sale has the support of the monitor, a court-appointed, independent third party which helps guide businesses through creditor protection. In the Bay's case, the monitor is Alvarez & Marsal. It has yet to reveal whether it supports the Liu deal and did not respond to requests for comment. "Before any court application is brought forward, typically the company will test that out with them," Lee said. "They're not going to just sort of fly in blind and hope for the best." The second aspect for the court to mull is whether the proposed new tenant is suitable. Lee said that's determined by looking at whether they can perform the duties of the tenant and pay rent. Liu, who made her money in Chinese real estate, appears to have deep pockets but her experience comes from being a landlord rather than a tenant. The final aspect the court will consider is whether a transfer of a lease to Liu is "appropriate." Lee said people should think of it as asking this question: "Is what's proposed for this post-assignment lease relationship what people signed up for, or are they seeking to rewrite the lease or change the playing field so radically that it's not appropriate?" WATCH | What went wrong for Hudson's Bay: What went wrong with Hudson's Bay? 3 months ago Duration 5:49 That's where much of the tension could lie in the Bay case. "You can't go into CCAA as a tenant and then force your landlords to renegotiate their leases as a result," said Peter Tolensky, a Vancouver-based partner at Lawson Lundell LLP. The Canadian Press obtained a document last week that Liu's lawyer sent landlords outlining her plans. It says she will take on the leases on an "as is, where is" basis but doesn't mention the dining, entertainment, children's and fitness experiences she's told media she'd like to include in her department stores. It's unclear whether the leases allow for uses other than a Bay-like department store. Some lenders owed more than $100M A court faced with a request to reassign leases will weigh this context and think about whether "the landlord's world is being turned upside down by having this new tenant," said Geoffrey Dabbs, a B.C.-based founding partner at Gehlen Dabbs Cash. "The more it's a minor inconvenience for the landlord, the more likely the judge will order it," he said. While the Bay hasn't said whether it will seek an assignment, it's likely because any company in creditor protection has a duty to show the court it's doing its best to pay back companies and people it owes money to, Dabbs said. The Bay has a 26-page list of creditors, with some lenders owed more than $100 million each. Liquidation sales and a deal to sell the Bay trademarks to Canadian Tire for $30 million have put a dent in what's owed but selling leases to Liu would also help. Anyone who made an offer for leases had to make a deposit of 10 per cent of their estimated purchase price. Court documents show Liu made a deposit of $9.4 million, in addition to $6 million for the three approved leases, which would equate to a purchase price of $100 million for 28 leases. When a deal like this is reached, Dabbs said a company typically seeks landlord consent because commercial leases tend to have provisions stopping anyone from transferring a lease without a property owner agreeing. It's not uncommon for landlords to object because any leases that can't be sold and aren't assigned get turned back over to property owners who can choose how to fill them and under what terms. These are anchor leases, Tolensky noted. "So they're probably very favourable to the Bay or to the tenant in a lot of respects," Tolensky said, alluding to the fact that anchor tenants are often given attractive rents or terms. Thus, it's more advantageous for landlords to get their properties back, said Monica Beffa, founder of an Oakville, Ont., law firm. If they do, they can then charge higher rents, develop them for entirely new uses such as residential units or break them up into smaller parcels that can be rented by a wide array of tenants. If they don't and a court assigns the leases to Liu, landlords will likely be watching her closely to ensure she doesn't violate any terms of the agreement. Dabbs said: "The landlord may be cranky, if the tenant breaches, but put it this way, they don't want to rely on that.
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Lack of funding for e-buses could cause some to skip school
The E-Lion is the only zero-emission school bus currently on the market and is made entirely in Quebec. With the school year just coming to an end, the start of the 2025 school year is already shaping up to be complicated. The Quebec school bus federation (FTA) warns that many school buses are at risk of remaining parked in August due to a funding issue related to the shift to electric vehicles. A survey conducted by the FTA among its members reveals that, for 87 per cent of its members, electric routes were not profitable in the year that just ended. In an interview with The Canadian Press, the federation's executive director, Luc Lafrance, explains that the switch to electric vehicles significantly increases operating costs. In total, the FTA estimates that an electric bus costs an average of $14,000 more to operate than a gas-powered vehicle. Approximately 1,300 of the federation's 8,000 routes currently run on electricity. Beyond installation costs, the transport company is also responsible for maintaining charging stations, and electric vehicles require more expensive expertise to repair in the event of a problem. Repairs also tend to take longer, which pushes transport companies to have more replacement vehicles in case of a glitch. When the Quebec government mandated the purchase of electric vehicles in 2021, financial assistance was available to fund the transition. This support has been reduced from $12,900 to $5,000 this year, which is not enough, according to Lafrance. The funding cuts are causing a $12 million shortfall for transport companies, the FTA said in a statement. Lafrance said he met with the Minister of Education on Friday to express his concerns. The ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on June 28, 2025.
