A battle is brewing over whether Toronto stores and malls should be able to open on six statutory holidays.
The city has been collecting feedback on the nearly 20-year-old holiday shopping bylaw through an online survey that is open to the public until March 4. A final report is expected by June.
On one side are retail workers who want to retain the same stat holiday days off most Ontarians enjoy.
On the other side are store owners who say they’re losing out to malls like Square One and Vaughan Mills that are allowed to stay open in other regions of the GTA.
“This is just a fight to protect what they have,” says Unifor Ontario regional director Samia Hashi, “and ensure that their working conditions don’t continue to be eroded.”
Along with having less time to spend with family, Hashi says stores opening on stat holidays pose child care challenges for parents and reduced public transit options.
Currently, most Toronto retail stores, including many grocery stores and malls like Yorkdale and Scarborough Town Centre, are not allowed to open on nine stat holidays under Chapter 510 of Toronto’s bylaws including: New Year’s Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Some Toronto businesses — the Eaton Centre, stores on downtown Yonge Street and in Bloor-Yorkville — have been deemed “tourist areas” and are exempt from the bylaw. Restaurants and pharmacies are also exempt.
The roots of the recent online survey over the store-opening bylaw go back to May of 2023 when council directed staff to review the nine holidays and establish criteria for exemptions after a push for policy change by Coun. Mike Colle (Ward 8 Eglinton-Lawrence) and Yorkdale mall.
“I was basically trying to rectify a redundant, ludicrous bylaw,” said Colle recently, “that punished a very, very important economic driver in the city.”
If successful, Yorkdale and other stores in Toronto could be open every day of the year except Christmas, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Workers face familiar fight
Mary Leonard, a full-time Metro grocery store employee, and executive of her local Unifor union, was at the council meeting in December 2006 when the holiday shopping bylaw was passed. She has resisted changes to it ever since.
“It comes up when somebody else, whatever corporation or person, gets it into their mind, ‘Let’s go after this again,’” says Leonard. “We’re tired of it.”
Leonard, who has worked in retail for 50 years, says the nine holidays are some of the only scheduled days off she gets each year besides her two days a week.
She also gets National Truth and Reconciliation Day off every Sept. 30, but only thanks to her collective agreement.
She looks forward to the stat holidays as a mental health break and to spend time with family and friends.
“We need this time,” she says. “We all have time when we need our brain healthier than what it is, whether it’s just to sit and have a pop and a bag of chips in front of a movie or take your kids for a walk.”
Businesses want to share the wealth
Small business owner Fred Naggar comes at the issue from the other side, having to close his Delysées Luxury Desserts store in Yorkdale mall during otherwise busy holidays at his shops in Yorkville and on Ossington Avenue that are allowed to stay open.
“Losing a busy day as a small business hurts,” says Naggar.
Naggar initially supported the stat days off as a way to give his team a rest, but he has grown tired of lost sales and tossed product at his Yorkdale outlet.
He adds that most employees want to work the stats for the extra pay.
“I do believe for our team it’s extremely important for them to work extra days,” says Naggar.
Lesley Boughen, senior manager of tourism for Oxford Properties Group, agreed, saying most workers at their Yorkdale mall property would “welcome the opportunity to pick up additional shifts” to earn time-and-a-half pay.
Both Leonard and Hashi reject these claims, saying workers would much rather have a day off than a fatter paycheque.
“Money doesn’t even count into it,” Leonard says. “It is beyond what you can imagine. When you have that day coming, you’re like, ‘oh, God, I got Family Day!’”
And Hashi says the union has not heard of people missing out on stat pay.
“We hear the opposite,” she says, “that they want this time off.”
Boughen hopes the city’s stat holiday review will establish criteria for businesses hoping to be granted a tourist area exemption like the Eaton Centre.
“There needs to be criteria in place to be granted an exemption,” says Boughen, adding that nearly a quarter of its 18 million annual visitors come from outside Toronto.
Council decision expected this summer
Even before the city drafts its recommendations sometime this summer, Colle said he expects council to be “very cautious.”
“They’re very fearful of touching this issue,” he says, “which is just dumbfounding.”
If the recommendations aren’t “bold” enough, Colle says he’d bring forward an amendment to make the changes necessary to uplift local businesses struggling in the face of online shopping and tariff threats.
“I just find this one of these old vestiges of the past,” says Colle, “that is really putting us at a disadvantage.”
For Metro worker Leonard, she hopes council rejects any changes, but is ready — along with her union — to fight back.
“We’re here for the long haul,” she said, “We’ll take it on each and every time.”
