It will be business as usual for city garbage collection for the first B.C. Family Day.
Although city hall will be closed Feb. 11, those in the blue zone (College Heights) will still have their regularly scheduled Monday garbage pickup on the new statutory holiday.
City parks and solid waste manager Flavio Viola explained that the one-time holiday collection is due to the timing of the province setting the date.
Following the results of an online survey, the Premier Christy Clark announced on May 28 that the holiday would fall on the second Monday of February, as opposed to the third Monday like in the five other provinces which recognize the winter holiday.
But the city's garbage collection calendars - which run from March to February - were already long printed and distributed.
"So rather than causing confusion for the residents, we thought we would just carry it on," Viola said, adding had they chosen not to try to switch everyone's garbage day and just give staff a holiday, then those scheduled for pickup on Monday would have to go two weeks without collection. "Next year it will be marked down as a statutory holiday. So then the garbage will be moved to the next day."
Collection workers will receive overtime pay for working the holiday, he said.
