September 30, 2021 will be the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and coincides with Orange Shirt Day, which is an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day that honours the children who survived Indian Residential Schools and remembers those who did not.
The new federal holiday was one of the 94 calls to action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015.
Many provinces and territories have followed the Federal government’s lead in marking in the day as a designated holiday and day off for students however, private companies and organizations can decide if they want to honour optional or unofficial holidays, and provinces can also designate holidays.
Although Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario will recognize the day as The Day of Truth and Reconciliation, they have chosen not to designate it as a statutory holiday.
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