Premier Ford Floats Idea Of Letting Shopping Centres Stay Open On Family Day
Adedokun Waliyu
2 min read
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says his government will “look into” possible changes to rules that force most shopping centres and malls to close on Family Day.
At a news conference Tuesday, Ford said many Ontarians, especially in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), would have appreciated more shopping options on the annual holiday.
“I got so many people wanting to go to shopping malls and Yorkdale (Shopping Centre) would’ve been packed, Sherway (Gardens) would have been packed, Square One (Shopping Centre) would’ve been packed,” he said.
Ontario’s Retails Business Holidays Act mandates most malls and shopping centres to close on nine stat holidays, including Family Day which was celebrated on Monday.
Ford said allowing the malls to open would benefit workers eager to make time-and-a-half stat holiday pay.
“I always say everyone deserves a rest, take your holidays, but there are a whole bunch of people that want to get that little extra overtime,” he said.
“Even if someone is making $20 an hour now you get to go in and make $50 an hour, but that’s up to the companies to decide.”
“(I’m) just throwing that out there,” he added of the informal announcement. “We will look into it and find out how realistic it is. I know the Eaton Centre was open but people in the suburbs were saying, ‘why do I have go downtown?’ “
The Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto is allowed to stay open under a Toronto bylaw exemption for businesses located in some key tourist areas.
Ford also argued that a move to allow malls to remain open would provide Ontario with an economic boost.
“What I’m getting at is it should be the option, number one, of the people that work in the retail sector, and not be forced, and we would cover them to make sure there’s no ramifications,” he said without clarifying.
“But there’s a ton of people out there that want to earn $50 an hour that are making $20 an hour. They want to put a shift in and it would add to our GDP (Gross Domestic Product).”
“Nothing is guaranteed,” he added. “I’ll talk to the retail council.”
It’s not clear if Ford was talking about malls opening on all stat holidays, or just Family Day. CityNews has reached to his office for clarity and is awaiting a response.
Ontario has the following nine public holidays:
New Year’s Day
Family Day
Good Friday
Victoria Day
Canada Day
Labour Day
Thanksgiving Day
Christmas Day
Boxing Day (December 26)
