Yorkdale cries foul on holiday retail rules
The northwest mall wants the playing field levelled so that it can stay open for business on statutory holidays.

TheStar.com
Dec. 29, 2017
Michael Lewis

Yorkdale Shopping Centre says it wants the city to create a mechanism that would let retailers seek exemptions under holiday closing laws, so the popular mall can apply to open its stores to the public on New Year’s Day and other statutory holidays.

Claire Santamaria, Yorkdale’s director and general manager, said stores at the mall in the city’s northwest will be closed Monday, while competitors including the Toronto Eaton Centre, Pacific Mall and Vaughan Mills can open.

Yorkdale Shopping Centre’s theatres and restaurants will open during statutory holidays, but shops cannot open under the Retail Business Holidays Act. Yorkdale’s security and guest services must be on staff during holidays because the public are on the property for dining and entertainment.

The centre is essentially open — but the retail stores are not. That’s because of tourist-area exemptions granted under the act that exclude Yorkdale, which isn’t located near the downtown core.

But Santamaria, who in submissions to the city said Yorkdale is now the country’s “most successful” shopping centre and a leading Toronto tourist destination, added that there is no criterion that establishes a basis that would allow Yorkdale manager Oxford Properties to apply for an exemption under the act.

She said starting in 1994, Toronto granted exemptions for the Eaton Centre that permitted it to open to the public on statutory holidays. Using the same process to apply, exemptions were granted to other locations in the downtown area, including Queens Quay West and the Distillery Historic District.

Vaughan Mills and Pacific Mall, both located north of Toronto, have won similar exemptions in recent years.

As part of municipal amalgamation, Toronto assumed jurisdiction over retail shopping regulations within its borders and it was believed at the time that the city would set up its own process by which a retail location or area could apply for further exemptions, Santamaria said.

But council decided to do nothing and leave retail locations with no procedural means to present their case for a site specific exemption to the bylaw, she added.

A spokesperson for the City of Toronto did not immediately respond to a request for comment.