New holiday too costly, businesses complain

P.E.I. businesses are complaining they will be the ones footing the bill for a new statutory holiday being celebrated for the first time on Monday.

'We'll actually see an increase in productivity.' — Premier Robert Ghiz

Islander Day was first promised in last spring's throne speech, giving Islanders a long weekend in the depths of winter. But P.E.I. businesses say while it sounds like a nice idea, it is an expensive one.

"The average GDP for P.E.I. in a day is a little over $12 million. That's roughly what the productivity cost is," Erin McGrath-Gaudet of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business told CBC News Wednesday.

"Certainly for businesses, this is money going out the door for payroll, and there's no money coming in."

Doug Coles, president of the Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber supports the concept of an Islander Day, but not as a paid, mandatory holiday.

"There's no remuneration or no revenue stream back to the employer, so that gets added to the administrative burden of what they're trying to produce or what they're trying to sell," said Coles.

But Premier Robert Ghiz believes looking at the effects of a new statutory holiday is more complicated than simply removing a day's production from the work year.

"We'll actually see an increase in productivity," said Ghiz.

"Usually after people have a day off they go back to work, they're a little more invigorated, they want to get a little more done. I see this as a win-win situation for the province."

Provincial civil servants will get the day off and most businesses, including large retail stores, will be closed. However, more than 2,000 federal employees, who are members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada and some other unions, will be expected to report to work that day.