Retail stores in Sackville will not have to worry about getting fined for opening this Sunday, according to Tantramar CAO Jennifer Borne.
On Tuesday, Tantramar council approved the repeal of a 20-year-old bylaw that exempted Sackville businesses from the province’s Days of Rest Act, which limits who can be open on Sundays. The goal was to lift a restriction on hours of operation for Sundays, but resulted in leaving Sackville businesses at the mercy of the provincial act.
Jennifer Borne says that wasn’t intentional, and the town is now taking corrective action to rectify the situation.
“This is certainly not ideal and the new by-law in fact should have been brought forward at the same time,” writes Borne by email. “There was certainly no intention of impacting business, and we are taking corrective action to rectify the situation. We have been in contact with the province and will bring a by-law to council as fast as we legislatively can. In the meantime we will not be enforcing the matter and businesses will open for business on Sunday with no disruption.”
Borne has moved quickly, with a special council meeting slated for today at 11am, with a single item on the agenda: “By-Law No 2024-11, A By-Law Relating to the Operation of Retail Businesses In The Municipality of Tantramar”.
Borne says the town is modelling the new bylaw off examples from Moncton and Woodstock, which state simply that all businesses can open on Sunday as they wish. The former town of Sackville’s bylaw, which has been on the books since 2005, allowed businesses to open on Sundays but limited their hours of operation to 10am to 6pm. Borne points out the new bylaw will apply to all of Tantramar.
Passing a new bylaw takes a bit longer than repealing one. At today’s meeting Tantramar council is expected to pass first and second reading of the new bylaw, which would leave third reading for one more meeting which has yet to be scheduled.
In the meantime, Sackville stores don’t need to worry about getting fined for opening their doors this Sunday. The provincial department of local government says that enforcement of the Days of Rest Act is up to local authorities, and Borne says staff have no plans to lay down the law.
Bylaw repealed in response to Retail Council of Canada letter
The catalyst behind the move to change Tantramar’s Sunday Shopping bylaw is a letter from the Retail Council of Canada sent to Mayor Andrew Black less than two months ago, on March 28, asking the town to amend its bylaw.
A few weeks later, on April 22, the Tantramar clerk’s office presented council with a report recommending the repeal of the bylaw, based on the letter from the Retail Council of Canada. There was not much discussion of the proposed repeal, but it did catch Councillor Josh Goguen’s attention, who wondered if the request had been echoed by local businesses, in addition to the Retail Council of Canada.
Assistant clerk Becky Goodwin told council that “the clerk’s office has not heard anything from [retail businesses].”
When the proposed repeal was brought back to council on Tuesday, Councillor Michael Tower brought up the possibility of consulting local businesses about the change, but his motion to postpone the repeal was voted down, 5 to 4.
Two of the other towns lobbied by the Retail Council of Canada this year have consulted residents about changes to their bylaw.
The town of Woodstock passed a new bylaw removing Sunday hours restrictions in February, after hosting an online survey of its residents. And Miramichi is currently surveying residents about making a change to its bylaw, which restricts Sunday shopping to the hours of 12pm to 5pm.
Mixed reaction to Sunday shopping
Jim Cormier is the Atlantic Director for the Retail Council of Canada, and says the campaign to get New Brunswick communities to remove hours restrictions on Sunday shopping has been going on for about ten years, and the reaction has been mixed.
“Some would say it’s been a great success. Some will tell you it’s been a disaster. Some will tell you it’s been somewhere in between,” says Cormier. But when asked if they think the decision should be theirs, “the vast majority of them say, yeah, it should be my decision. Especially in 21st century society, that if I want to be open, it shouldn’t be town council telling me that I can’t or that I can only be open during these hours.”
Local business owner Ellen Pickle has been running Tidewater Books since 1995, about ten years before Sackville passed their original Sunday shopping bylaw. These days, Pickle doesn’t worry about Sunday shopping rules, because she chooses not to open on Sunday. And it’s been that way for a few years.
“We found that that customers became familiar with shortened hours as a result of COVID,” says Pickle, whose shop offers online ordering and pickup as well.
“Downtowns used to compete with malls on the outskirts of cities, new outskirts of towns and they felt, you know, we’ve got to be open Thursday night, Friday night, Sunday afternoon, to compete with the malls… Well the malls aren’t even doing those long hours anymore.”
Pickle says that staffing can also be an issue for longer opening hours, including Sundays.
Tantramar council is meeting today to consider a new bylaw that will allow Sunday shopping in the municipality, after having repealed a similar bylaw on Tuesday.
