Ontario Heritage Day Act, 2003 Agostino, Dominic — Bill 65 (37th Parliament, 4th Session)

Bill 65, 37-4

Ontario — Bills

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Bill 65, Ontario Heritage Day Act, 2003

Agostino, Dominic

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[37] Bill 65 Original (PDF)

Bill 65 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) 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.

Date Bill stage Activity Committee

May 27, 2003

First Reading

Carried

Debates and Progress

First Reading

May

27, 2003

Second Reading

Committee

Third Reading

Royal Assent :

Coming into force :Royal Assent.

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Document details

Collection	Ontario — Bills
Citation	Bill 65, 37-4
Type	bill
Volume / chapter	p37 s4 bill 65 html
Language	en
Format	html
Source	PROVINCIAL
Identifier	486f7b984e22c9e6458b1c409f9c94091468b749

Source file is stored in the law ingest library (html).