Bill 16 2003

An Act to proclaim
Ontario Heritage Day and to
amend other Acts to include
Ontario Heritage Day as a holiday

Preamble

As a name for the region west of the Ottawa River and north of the Great Lakes, "Ontario" only dates from the Canadian Confederation of 1867. Before then, the place was known as Canada West, and before 1841, Upper Canada. Before 1791, it was called "the upper parts of the Province of Quebec", and before 1763, it was simply "le pays d'en haut" - the upper country of New France.

Ontario is bounded to the south by the freshwater inland seas of the Great Lakes and to the north by the salt water of Hudson Bay. To the east, the Ottawa River serves as Ontario's boundary, and to the west, the boundary is Lake of the Woods. In between are almost literally countless small lakes and rivers. All told, water accounts for just fewer than 12 per cent of Ontario's total geographic area. In modern Ontario, virtually all the major highways and rail transportation corridors follow the historic waterways of a more romantic age.

The total area of the modern Ontario territory is somewhat more than one million square kilometres. This makes it the second largest province in Canada (after Quebec, with British Columbia a close third). It also makes it considerably larger than either California or Texas in the United States, or France and the United Kingdom combined.

The long, slow development of the early Canadian fur trade helped shape the more complex Ontario regional economy that would gradually develop after the start of mass settlement in the late eighteenth century. Aided by First Nations' peoples, through the fur trade Europeans learned about Ontario's geography and its transportation corridors along the native waterways, typically traveled by "canôt de maître" until virtually the start of mass settlement. A half dozen strategic outposts of the fur trade would ultimately become the modern Ontario urban centres of Kingston, Toronto, Niagara, Windsor, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay. From 1650 to 1750, the Ontario territory itself was a kind of hub, around which the gradual expansion of the early Canadian fur trade took shape.

The Seven Years War (1756-1763) brought all of what is now Canada east of the Rocky Mountains, and thus the remainder of what is now Ontario, into the British Empire. It was the large Loyalist settlements that began in 1784 that signalled the start of large-scale mass settlement in the Ontario territory.

Ontario entered the Canadian Confederation of 1867 as Canada's most populous province, a situation that continues today.

For centuries before the arrival of Europeans, the First Nations of Ontario had thriving cultures and communities. They aided the first settlers by sharing their knowledge of the land and the tools needed to survive in the vast and intimidating environment. Arriving from all corners of the globe, successive waves of migrants and their descendants have continued to make important contributions to Ontario's society and economy. Today, Ontario is one of the most culturally and ethnically diverse regions on the planet, a fact of which Ontarians are extremely proud.

It is appropriate to establish a day in Ontario to pay tribute to the province's long and rich economic, social and political history, and to recognize the important contributions made by generations of settlers and their descendants, as well as the First Nations.

Therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, enacts as follows:

Ontario Heritage Day

1.  (1)  The second Monday in June in each year is proclaimed as Ontario Heritage Day.

Statutory holiday

(2)  Ontario Heritage Day is proclaimed a statutory holiday.

Amendments to Other Statutes

2.  The definition of "holiday" in subsection 29 (1) of the Interpretation Act is repealed and the following substituted:

"holiday" includes Sunday, New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Christmas Day, the birthday or the day fixed by proclamation of the Governor General for the celebration of the birthday of the reigning Sovereign, Victoria Day, Ontario Heritage Day, Dominion Day, Labour Day, Remembrance Day, and any day appointed by proclamation of the Governor General or the Lieutenant Governor as a public holiday or for a general fast or thanksgiving, and when any holiday, except Remembrance Day, falls on a Sunday, the day next following is in lieu thereof a holiday; ("jour férié")

3.  The definition of "holiday" in subsection 1 (1) of the Retail Business Holidays Act, as re-enacted by the Statutes of Ontario, 1996, chapter 34, section 1, is amended by adding the following clause:

(c.1) Ontario Heritage Day,

Commencement and Short Title

Commencement

4.  This Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.

Short title

5.  The short title of this Act is the Ontario Heritage Day Act, 2003.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The Bill proclaims the second Monday in June in each year to be Ontario Heritage Day and proclaims that day to be a statutory holiday.