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Tom Parker, left, Allison Morley, Stacey Blondin and Lucy Spencer work the front desk at city hall on Wednesday. City hall will be open throughout the holidays, except for weekends and statutory holidays. - Laura Busch/NNSL photo

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The GNWT offers the most generous Christmas holidays among all levels of government in the city.

Territorial government offices will be shut down as of this morning and all non-essential staff will not return to work until Jan. 2.

Meanwhile, City of Yellowknife offices and federal Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) offices will remain open over the holidays, excluding weekends and statutory holidays on Dec. 24, 25 and Jan. 1.

Dennis Kefalas, acting senior administrative officer for the city, said city hall keeps offices open as much as possible so that it can provide essential services to residents.

"Our residents rely more on the city than they do on the GNWT," he said.

Other than statutory holidays, city hall will have limited hours on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, said Kefalas.

At AANDC's Yellowknife office, the story is much the same, though Paula Harker, director of communications, said a fair number of employees opt to take vacation time.

"Obviously, we're working at a reduced capacity given scheduled vacation time but we're maintaining all of our programs and services," she said.

The extended winter holiday for GNWT employees is due to what was previously known as "Donny Days," five days of unpaid mandatory leave implemented in 1996 by then-premier Don Morin.

Sheila Bassi-Kellett, deputy minister at the GNWT Department of Human Resources, said she remembers the initial reaction to Donny Days as mixed. The mandatory unpaid leave was originally a cost-saving measure implemented by the government but employees soon learned to love them, she said.

"They became quite popular and then during different rounds of collective bargaining in the mid-2000s, first we changed to having one of the days paid and then the remaining four unpaid and then in 2009 in negotiations with the union through bargaining, all the days became paid," she said.

In 2009, the paid vacation days were re-named from Donny Days to Mandatory Leave with Pay Days.

No matter what they're called, all GNWT employees, including non-unionized workers, now receive five days of paid vacation along with three statutory holidays on Dec. 24, 25 and Jan. 1, said Bassi-Kellett. There are some exceptions. For example, teachers work on a different schedule than all other government employees. Also, while government offices are shut down, essential services like health centres are not, so nurses and other essential staff are given five extra vacation days to take when their schedules permit, said Bassi-Kellett.

On a personal note, Bassi-Kellett said she absolutely loves her mandatory leave with pay during the holidays.

"It's getting into the rhythm of the daylight for me," she said. "You wake up and have your coffee and you're in your PJs until 10, then you put your skis on and you go out and it's getting dusky at 2:30.

"I mean it's just lovely. It's a lovely time of the year to connect and be social with everyone in town and I think the rhythm of the community here, especially within the GNWT, really slows down and I think people have a really wonderful and relaxed time and then can really tackle January with some optimism and a refreshed sense of outlook."

When asked if there are any drawbacks to closing GNWT offices during the holidays, Bassi-Kellett could not suggest any.

"We see this as a really important thing to encourage staff to take some time to recharge their batteries. It was one of the factors that led to the GNWT being recognized as one of Canada's top 100 employers," she said.

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