Ontario's Broken Family Day

Instead of a province at leisure, as Premier Dalton McGuinty promised during the provincial election campaign last fall, an estimated 40 per cent of us will be reporting to work first thing Monday morning, trudging through more snow and sleet while the other 60 per cent, including our neighbours and friends, stay home in their flannel pyjamas doing battle with their kids for time on the computer.

But as McGuinty himself noted, it is our first Family Day holiday, and perhaps there are a few wrinkles that still need ironing out.

Further adding to the confusion, the Toronto District School Board is having a board-wide Professional Activity day today and all schools are closed.

That means some lucky Toronto residents, if they've planned things properly, will get a four-day weekend.

So just who is off on Family Day?

Well it's a total mishmash of employees. LCBO staff will be off. Provincial and municipal politicians will be off. McGuinty plans to be at home in Ottawa with his family, while Toronto Mayor David Miller plans to go tobogganing with his children.

But the University of Toronto campus police will be on the job. As will Toronto police, and workers who assist physically disabled adults at Welland's Tanguay Place. As well as a number of ambulance service workers in Northern Ontario. Autoworkers and employees in the aerospace industry will also be at work.

And many retail store employees and mall employees in Toronto will have to report to work as usual.

As well, all federal government employees and employees in federally regulated sectors will be working, because they are not subject to provincial law.

And all employers that already grant more than the legal minimum of nine statutory holidays (which now includes Family Day) are exempt under the province's Employment Standards Ac