Toronto councillors open door for change to holiday store closings

Proposed review was triggered by a grocery chain's successful challenge based on its prepared food offerings.

Thestar.com
April 18, 2017
By David Rider

A city committee wants a review of rules that force most Toronto retailers to close on nine statutory holidays.

Councillors who oversee licensing voted Tuesday in favour of public consultation on potential changes to rules that have been successfully challenged in court by Longo’s grocery chain.

The bylaw states retailers must remain closed on Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Day and Family Day, but with exceptions.

Stores allowed to open on those days include: those in five designated tourist zones that include the Eaton Centre; small pharmacies and corner stores; and those that make and serve meals.

Longo’s won in court, and on appeal, arguing its prepared meal offerings make it exempt from the bylaw just like restaurants and fast-food eateries.

The licensing committee voted to consult the public on expanding that exemption beyond restaurants, to also look at the other loopholes, and to have staff develop an application process for retailers seeking an exemption.

The recommendation goes to city council for debate later this month.

As in past reviews of Toronto’s patchwork holiday shopping rules, some mall operators and retailers spoke in favour of relaxing or eliminating them while unions said statutory holidays are valuable for workers.

Yorkdale Mall general manager Claire Santamaria told councillors that opening six of the days - while remaining closed Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Christmas - could bump up her mall’s $1.3 billion annual sales by $20 million.

Relaxing the rules would help Yorkdale tenants compete against always-open online retailers, she said, and put extra money in the pockets of store staff. Most of them would still be eligible for a pay premium on those days and can opt out of working statutory holidays.

Pam Frache of the Workers’ Action Centre said many employers already shirk legal duties related to holiday pay and have ways to force staff to work. Erasing predictability of down-time promotes a “cycle of precarity”, part of a trend that has people increasingly living at the whim of their employers, she said.

Councillor Janet Davis said most people want stat holidays with mandatory store closures rather than “24-hour-a-day, wide-open shopping in the city of Toronto.”

Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker disagreed. “What we have is people voting with their feet. I don't think we're going to stop it,” he said of holiday shopping, citing figures showing crowds of people in the Eaton Centre.

In 2012 a different committee rejected a recommendation from the city’s top economic development official to let all Toronto retailers open between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day and Thanksgiving.