Yukoners won’t be getting the day off to celebrate King Charles’ first official day on the job.
The king, who technically took the throne immediately following Queen Elizabeth’s death last September, will be crowned on May 6 at Westminster Abbey in London. His wife, Camilla, will be made Queen consort. At 74- and 75-years-old, they will be the oldest King and Queen to be crowned in British history.
The Saturday coronation will be followed by an outdoor concert at Windsor Castle and country-wide luncheon the following day, according to the Royal Family. May 8 will be a bank holiday in the U.K.
No plans have been announced to mark the occasion in Canada.
On March 3, the CBC reported that Ottawa is “tight-lipped” about the celebration, quipping that some monarchist Canadians are experiencing “coronation envy.”
Premier Ranj Pillai confirmed that May 6 “will not be a holiday in the Yukon” in a public Twitter response to a local business association on March 7. He tagged the Yukon and Whitehorse chambers of commerce in his reply.
The Yukon chapter of the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB) had asked the Yukon government to announce plans for May 6 in a tweet posted earlier that day.
“While this is an important event, small businesses urge you to not create any new statutory or paid holidays at this challenging time,” the tweet reads, continuing that businesses are still struggling three years after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared.
“Small firms cannnot afford the additional cost or productivity loss of a new statutory holiday at this time.”
As the new king takes the throne, the Yukon government is working to update its legislation to reflect Canada’s new sovereign.
The ruling party tabled the References to the Sovereign Statute Law Amendment Act on March 3.
The act also adds a provision that will allow future changes to the sovereign to be updated via regulation, instead of statute.
A government press release issued March 8 notes that this is purely an administrative change and will not affect the government’s operational policies.
Contact Gabrielle Plonka at gabrielle.plonka@yukon-news.com