It will not be tomorrow that the Quebec government will reintroduce the mandatory closure of stores on Sundays, as was the case before 1992.
During a press briefing on Thursday, the Minister for Business and Innovation, Pierre Fitzgibbon, admitted his “ambivalence” on this much-undermined issue of revising business opening hours.
While large companies generally advocate longer opening hours, an increasing number of small businesses are, on the contrary, calling for a reduction in opening hours for everyone, up to and including the imposition of business closures on one or more days per week.
“There are two main schools of thought. Some want to have access to consumers even when they are on vacation. The others say that weeks with 6 days a week would be enough.
The minister says he understands everyone’s arguments. In addition, the labor shortage is weighing heavily on small business owners’ demands to reduce the number of operations.
According to the Quebec Retail Council (CQCD), 85% of retailers in Quebec have fewer than 20 employees. While the industry, like others, is suffering from labor shortages, many believe that reducing opening hours would give retailers a bit of a reprieve.
The minister said he sympathized with these small traders who managed to keep their shops open seven days a week with so few employees.
But what may seem like an easy decision to enforce is less so than it seems at first glance, emphasizes the CEO of the CQCD, Damien Silès.
“Regardless of party, it must be recognized that it would be easy for any government to prohibit citizens from earning a living even for one day a week. And even more so in this time of high inflation when everyone is looking for a way out.”
Still, the CQCD wants the government to update the provincial law that has been in place for more than thirty years. In particular, by removing the limitation on the number of employees imposed on food retailers after certain opening hours and the exemptions then in force in most tourist areas of the province.