Ontario Liberals Family Day means no extra day off for some.

When the OHIP "Premium" was introduced with a name designed to spin the impact of an extra tax, many people noted that unions with collective agreements retaining a provision to pay the old OHIP Premium would make claims. The Liberals said "we don't think that will happen" but declined to outlaw the possibility. Now TTC (among others) is paying the OHIP Tax on behalf of their unionised staff, at a cost of $6 million annually to the Commission (that's over two million TTC tokens, Dalton).

Before the last election, the Liberals promised an extra holiday - Family Day - in February, which will cost Toronto taxpayers $2.3 million but some private sector workers are finding out that they will lose a non-statutory holiday in August in return. Typically, the Labour Minister's response is a shrug - "no big deal".

"I think it's a terrific initiative and 83 per cent of Ontarians agree it's something this province should be doing," said Duguid, "Well the holidays outside of the nine public holidays are negotiated municipally or between employers and employees."