Posted on 10/04/2006 6:22:03 PM PDT by Heartofsong83
Supreme Court ruling prompts N.S. premier to eliminate Sunday shopping ban
James Keller, Canadian Press
Published: Wednesday, October 04, 2006
HALIFAX (CP) - Nova Scotia's premier is scrapping the province's Sunday shopping ban, ending years of heated debate in a province that was one of the last to forbid the practice.
Rodney MacDonald announced the sudden and surprising policy reversal Wednesday, immediately after a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge struck down regulations aimed at stopping two grocery chains from opening seven days a week.
MacDonald said the province will not appeal the decision, and will update regulations by the end of the week to allow all retail stores to open on Sundays.
"We don't want to continue in this endless debate on the issue of Sunday shopping," a relieved MacDonald said soon after the ruling was released. "I think it's time that we put this issue behind us. I think Nova Scotians are prepared and want us to move forward in this direction."
The announcement means Nova Scotia will no longer be the only province in Canada to ban large retailers from opening on Sundays, year-round. Prince Edward Island still bans Sunday shopping, except during the Christmas season.
The issue has dogged Nova Scotia's Conservative government for years.
Former premier John Hamm made it clear he was opposed to Sunday shopping, but public pressure prompted him to hold a plebiscite in 2004.
Voters narrowly rejected Sunday shopping, but critics were quick to cite polls that showed the issue continued to divide rural and urban Nova Scotians.
Newly elected premier Rodney MacDonald said his government would respect the results of the vote after Sobeys and Atlantic Superstore grocery chains started opening stores in spite of the ban, exploiting a loophole in the law.
Halifax-based Pete's Frootique had used the loophole for years, having won a court battle over the issue. But Pete Luckett's two outlets were exempt from the new restriction.
Critics slammed MacDonald for botching the issue when the province's prosecution service said his new regulations, introduced in June, could not be enforced.
Now, with a Supreme Court ruling that left his government few options, MacDonald moved quickly to dispense with a thorny issue that wasn't about to go away.
"Nova Scotians did speak in the plebiscite, and I think when one takes a look at what the government has done over the past two years, government has respected that," said MacDonald. "In light of today's Supreme Court decision, it's now time to move forward."
The two chains at the centre of the challenge praised the pivotal ruling.
"It's a win for consumers in Nova Scotia, it's what we went to the government with - looking for a level playing field," said Superstore spokesman Dirk Romyn, whose company has been partially opening some stores across the province for months.
Under the current regulations, retail outlets larger than 4,000 square feet are prohibited from opening on Sundays. But there were many exemptions, particularly for bookstores, tourism-related businesses, fruit stands and pharmacies.
The two grocery giants complained that pharmacies, such as Shoppers Drug Mart, were creating unfair competition by expanding their food sections.
The chains decided to skirt the law by closing certain sections of their stores and dividing the rest into separate businesses, emulating the strategy used by Pete's Frootique.
By last weekend, Sobeys and Superstore were opening about 40 stores in total.
Both chains say the same number of stores will open this weekend, but the sections that had been closed to comply with the law will open.
"And then we'll make our plans to open up more as we go," said Romyn.
Sobeys spokesman Gerald Weseen said no decisions have been made on expanding Sunday openings.
In court, the lawyers for the chains successfully argued that the 21-year-old Retail Business Uniform Closing Day Act didn't give the provincial cabinet the power to arbitrarily discriminate between businesses.
Liberal house leader Manning MacDonald said the ruling was predictable.
"We knew it was unenforceable and, as long as workers in this province are going to be protected, I think the marketplace should kick in," he said. "And if people don't want to shop on Sunday, they don't have to."
The province has already moved to protect workers from being forced to work on Sundays, but NDP economic development critic Howard Epstein said the current rules don't't go far enough.
"They're full of holes and, in the end, are written in a way that doesn't really protect anybody," said Epstein.
Valerie Payn, head of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, congratulated MacDonald on what she called a bold step.
"I think he read the writing on the wall," she said. "He's had some time to reflect on things . . . and say, 'Let's go all the way. Let's fix this.'
Can't say that I do. But it seems to me that if you'd rather not shop on Sunday, you should feel free to stay out of the stores. And if you're a retailer with an aversion to opening on Sunday (like the Chick-fil-A chain), don't open on Sunday.
But I can think of no rational reason why a government -- national, state, provincial, city -- should tell businesses when they may and may not operate.
I agree totally! If you don't like commerce on Sunday then don't do it, but you shouldn't use the police power of the government via politicians to impose your personal beliefs on the rest of us who may WANT to shop on Sunday. Things like this is why I generally dislike religious based political organizations.
Hopefully Bergen County in NJ will follow this lead. A ban on Sunday shopping is absurd. What about Jews who can't shop Saturday? As others have said, if retailers don't want to open and shoppers don't want to shop, it's a free country.
Great news. There should be no blue laws. We are not a theocracy.
Yet another instance of how constraints on government regulations are easily be found improper if there is (or was) a religious motive involved, and almost impossible to overturn otherwise. The secular mullahs strike again. If they struck down government regulations even-handedly, that might be some reason to applaud judicial activism, but it is a one-way street with the Christophobes.
Things have changed!
Bring back the Sunday Blue Laws!
Life was better!
Ya know, that's ridiculous. Some of us occasionally like to go get beer and munchies for an impromptu Sunday afternoon football party. There is *no* good reason to keep the stores closed if there is a demand.
I've gotten spoiled to buying stuff on Sunday too.
Truthfully, though, life can be lived with Blue Laws...and it did seem better, IMO. :)
I will respectfully disagree. When I lived in Indiana, it was *annoying* as hell when I forgot to stock up on Saturday on beer/wine for football on Sunday and couldn't go get it anywhere.
I've also lived in the mountains where the main grocery store was 18 miles away in the next town. I'd go shopping once a week. Wasn't a problem.
We just have different points of view.
But I do remember growing up with the Blue Laws, and life was fine.
We'll just disagree on this one. :)
Hobby Loby chooses not to open on Sunday. IMO it would be one of their busiest days because of the number of people off work on weekends.
All good.
So you're willing to use the brute force of government to protect some businesses from competition for Sunday customers from other businesses?
That's not a very conservative viewpoint.
Hobby Lobby, Chick-fil-A, and others who choose not to open Sundays pay dearly for their decisions. Not only do they forgo a potentially lucrative day every week, but they surely miss out on some prime locations: most shopping center developers don't want a "dead spot" in their strip center or on their corner outparcel.
But that's fine. Retail operations that choose not to open on Sundays know the effects on their bottom line. Having a government forbid Sunday openings is something else entirely.
I'm with you.
Chick-fil-A has been in the business of selling chicken for over fifty years, never losing sight of founder Truet Cathy’s original vision of a restaurant that was quick and friendly, with great food and exceptional customer service. On this foundation, Chick-fil-A has grown to 650 quick-service restaurants across the country, and continues to add 50 to 100 new sites per year.
Fifty years in business, 650 outlets, expanding steadily - doesn't sound like they're hurting too badly.
The people who want to go there would go there Saturday though. I see it as 6 days of business folded into 7.
Let's assume that, for whatever reason, thousands of Orthodox Jews decide that your county is a great place to live and move there. They then become a majority of the electorate.
Let us assume that a plebiscite is then held and 51% of the electorate votes that stores not be allowed to open on Saturday or during Jewish Holy Days and that restaurants not be allowed to open during the seven Jewish Fast Days.
Would you be O.K. with that?
A pure democracy where 50% of the vote plus one additional vote trumps everything else is nothing but mob rule.
In a constitutional republic or a constitutional monarchy that allows freedom of religion, your constitutional right to not to have the religious preferences of others imposed upon you trumps the desire of the majority of voters to do just that.
From a purely religious perspective, if God gave Man a free will to seek his own path, why should Government decide that shopping on the Christian Sabbath should be taken off the free will table?
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