Miramichi lifts restrictions on Sunday shopping
In Miramichi, New Brunswick, restrictions on Sunday shopping were lifted for the first time this weekend, making Miramichi the last municipality in New Brunswick to lift its Sunday opening hours restrictions.
Previously, an ordinance prohibited retail stores in Miramichi from opening outside of Sunday business hours between 12 p.m. and 5 p.m. Places such as restaurants and gas stations were exempt from the ordinance’s restrictions, according to provincial regulations.
Starting today, retail store owners in Miramichi will be allowed to set their Sunday opening hours at their own discretion.
The change is the result of a council vote on Tuesday to lift the restrictions after providing an opportunity for online feedback.
The city said online support was largely in favor of lifting Sunday sales restrictions. The ordinance change was also supported by the Miramichi Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Newcastle Business District and Historic Chatham Business District.
The vote was prompted by the Retail Council of Canada, which called on all New Brunswick municipalities with Sunday sales regulations to reconsider them. In New Brunswick, the council noted that Sackville, Woodstock and Miramichi still have such regulations in place.
The city councils of Sackville and Woodstock repealed local Sunday shopping ordinances in May and February, respectively.
Restrictions on Sunday opening hours were once quite common in the Maritimes, but disappeared in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The history of Sunday shopping in Nova Scotia includes a referendum in 2004 (in which 55 percent of respondents said most retail stores should remain closed on Sundays) and a final repeal of the rule in 2006 after the province’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of large grocery stores.
