Retail Business Holidays Act requires some shops to close - St ...

Fines can reach a maximum $50,000

By NICK LYPACZEWSKI TIMES-JOURNAL

Posted 9 hours ago

St. Thomas Police Service have issued an annual reminder that certain businesses are required by law to close their doors on Labour Day.

As with all statutory holidays, the Retail Business Holidays Act -- on the books since 1990 -- requires businesses of a certain type and size to be closed.

Const. Cam Constable says most business proprietors follow the rules well.

"I think pretty well everybody complies," he said.

"We actually haven't laid any charges in the last several years with regards to this. There have been warnings but certainly there haven't been any charges in the last few years."

Stores with a square footage of 2,400 feet and less than three employees working are allowed to remain open but only if they sell food, tobacco, antiques, handicrafts, gasoline or gardening supplies.

Restaurants, bars, tourist destinations and pharmacies are also exempt but the pharmacies only for drug dispensing and if they're less than 7,500 sq. ft.

Renee Carpenter, owner of Jennings Furniture Ltd. on Talbot Street, says she would look into remaining open on statutory holidays if she legally could.

"My opinion on any holiday is that you certainly lose a day of business and I would be open every holiday if it was possible in some form or fashion but legally, of course, we can't be," she said.

"How many people would be out shopping? I don't know. If peope have a day off, sometimes that's their only day to do things and they would be out or other people might be at the lake and there might not be a lot of business anyhow. Who knows but we've never had the opportunity to try."

Carpenter says she does, however, support the idea of giving the Jennings Furniture employees a day off.

"For employees, it's definitely nice to give them a day off and it's a great time for that but, from a business perspective, it is a day when you're shutting your doors and who knows who you're turning business away from."

Ron O'Malley owner of Sweet Dreams Mattress Center -- also on Talbot Street -- says he's in favour of laws calling for businesses to close on statutory holidays and on police cracking down on circumventers.

"I'd like to be closed. At the end of summer -- when you've struggled along in a hard year in a hard season -- when you have a Labour Day weekend, I mean, go away and enjoy it..... Labour Day is not to be renamed work-your-(butt)-off day," he said.

O'Malley adds that he has remained open on civic holidays -- an option the owner holds at their discression -- and that he noticed less customers than usual. Ironically, he says, mandatory shutdowns on statutory holidays have the potential to save the business money.

"You've got your fixed costs, you've got all your lights on, you've got your furnace and air conditioning on. It costs money to have this stuff running," he said.

"When you're an owner or operator...I make than less than minimum wage so if I'm making five bucks an hour to be here -- if I'm making that -- and you're not selling anything, five bucks an hour plus your operational expenses of having the place open is costing you money."

Fines for violating the act can max out at $50,000 or a gross amount of the daily sailes. Sectioning off an area to make it comply with square footage stipulations is not allowed.

Source: http://www.stthomastimesjournal.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3285205

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