York regional council ponders allowing businesses to open on statutory holidays

Yorkregion.com
April 22, 2016
By Lisa Queen

A debate about the ability to shop till you drop on statutory holidays could be in store for York Region.

While debates at a regional committee meeting last Thursday focused specifically on requests for exemptions to the Retail Business Holidays Act in King, Thornhill and Vaughan, councillors suggested it might be time to have a broader, region-wide discussion on the issue.

The provincial law requires retail businesses to close on nine statutory holidays: New Year’s Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.

Maximum fines for stores operating on those days are $500 for the first offence, $2,000 for the second offence and $5,000 for subsequent offences. Retail outlets can be fined up to $50,000 or the total amount of gross sales for the holiday, whichever is greater.

At the same time, the law allows some retail businesses, including stores in designated tourist areas, to open on stat holidays.

While it’s not uncommon for individual businesses to come to the region to ask for exemptions to the legislation, King asked for an exemption giving all retail businesses in the township the right to remain open on the nine statutory holidays.

In the end, the committee agreed to let all stores in King, as well as Winners at 1054 Centre St. in Thornhill and Coppa’s Fresh Market at 3300 Rutherford Rd. in Vaughan, which asked for individual exemptions, the right to open year-round except for Easter Sunday and Christmas Day.

Council must still approve the decision today.

But the committee’s decision did not come before Rev. Ross Carson, the minister at King’s York Pines United Church, criticized the township for failing to consult adequately with the community before rushing its decision.

“Why should faith groups be consulted? The answer is that faith groups facilitate a great deal of the good works that make a society civil,” he said, pointing, for example, to efforts to help Syrian refugees settle in the community.

There should be common days of rest for families to spend time together, Carson said.

“The failure that we might have no common pause days in King Township is what agitates those I serve,” he said.

“About Canada’s birthday, one gentleman has said to me, ‘It is shameful that stores could be open July 1. Surely, for one day a year, we can stand up for our country’.”

However, John Ciarallo, owner of John’s No Frills in Nobleton, and Jay Rider, a member of the King Chamber of Commerce board of directors, argued retail hours should reflect Canada’s changing multicultural society.

For example, many refugees churches and other Canadians are sponsoring don’t celebrate Christian holidays, Ciarallo said.

“I have no desire to be open on Christmas Day. I have no desire to be open on Easter Sunday. As an aside, I am a practicing Roman Catholic. But the reality is, as the reverend said, we’re welcoming Syrian refugees into King Township, which is very admirable,” he said.

“These people don’t practice our faith. They should have a choice to shop, work, when they choose. My particular operation is governed under a collective agreement. My employees would never be forced to work on a stat holiday. We ask for volunteers, firstly. Secondly, my management staff would step up and they are paid handsomely for that.”

King stores want the same opportunity to open as retail outlets in other communities, Ciarallo said.

“At the end of the day, it’s just a level playing field. We have abundant traffic that comes through King Township and we fail to capitalize to welcome these people into our retail businesses and other establishments in town because there are adjoining municipalities that have allowed their businesses to open and welcome this revenue,” he said.

“I’m asking for fairness. I’m asking for choice. No one is obligated to open on a statutory holiday if the exemption is granted. It is an individual decision. As a businessman, I would expect my decision would be respected to protect my employees’ jobs, not force them to work, to protect my family’s livelihood and to protect the tax base for the municipality that I live in. I think we are allowing dollars to leak out of our municipality based on some very old legislation.”

The chamber asked King council to make it legal for stores to open on statutory holidays after being approached by several business owners who felt they were at a competitive disadvantage compared to other communities, Rider said.

King held a public meeting and no one spoke out against the idea, he said.

For Ross to come to regional councillors now and ask them to overturn King’s decision “is too little, too late”, he said.

Employees are not required to work on statutory holidays under the Employment Standards Act, said Rider, a labour lawyer.

“What it means, then, is that for a lot of young workers and workers of other faiths, who might want to choose to work if their employer is open on a retail business holiday, is an opportunity either have a substitute day off later at a time and day that may be more preferential to them or, often, to work at a premium rate,” he said.

“I frankly suspect there are few, if any, businesses that would choose to open Christmas or Easter anyways. However, let’s recognize, as our prime minister says, 2016 and the world is much different now. We’re multicultural in today’s society.”

Markham Councillor Joe Li agreed.

“The country is totally different than 30, 40 years ago. I think people should be given a choice,” he said, adding his wife owns a restaurant and has chosen to close on Sundays and statutory holidays.

While the law may say workers can choose not to work on stat holidays, that’s not always reality, some councillors said.

“I’m not naïve enough to believe that people are not forced to work when they don’t want to,” Aurora Mayor Geoff Dawe said.

“Having had children who grew up working in some of the retail sector, I simply do not buy that. I find it insulting, quite frankly, for someone to stand up and tell me there is freedom of choice. I just don’t believe that.”

Meanwhile, stores should not be allowed to open on July 1, Dawe argued.

“I think it’s appalling businesses are open on Canada Day,” he said.

Richmond Hill Councillor Vito Spatafora agreed.

“Canada Day is the day we celebrate our country,” he said.

“Can’t (we) take pause to celebrate our country, this country that everybody wants to come to and wants to acknowledge as a nation that is worthy of living in? Can’t we take a day of pause on Canada Day to celebrate with our family and be together?”

However, most councillors disagreed and stores in King and the Thornhill Winners and Vaughan Coppa’s are expected to be allowed to open Canada Day, if council approves on Thursday.

Meanwhile, some councillors said it’s time to look at a consistent policy for retail outlets across the region rather than dealing with applications on an individual basis.

“At some point, (we should) go back and look at that for York Region because it’s a mish mash,” Markham Councillor Jack Heath said.

Based on the provincial legislation, the region reviews applications after local municipalities request them.

Other municipalities should follow King’s lead and approve policies covering their entire towns or cities rather than have stores come on an individual basis, King Mayor Steve Pellegrini said.

“I would recommend that other municipalities do what King has done and get everyone together instead of one off, one off, one off. Either you’re in or you’re out,” he said.