NEW YORK WHOLESALE

Not only is Sunday-morning shopping coming to a store near you, but cash registers will soon be ringing up sales on the mornings of Louis Riel Day, Victoria Day and Thanksgiving Day, too.

The province is expected to introduce legislation today that will enable municipalities to allow retailers to open their doors as early as 9 a.m. on Sundays and certain holidays. Store owners would still be compelled to close by 6 p.m.

On Tuesday, the Selinger government released a report from a committee representing business and labour that recommended the earlier Sunday openings, which would also be extended to Louis Riel Day, Victoria Day and Thanksgiving Day.

Family Services and Labour Minister Jennifer Howard said she did not want to "scoop" her own legislation by confirming the committee's recommendations would be enshrined in law. But she left no doubt the government was pleased with the fact it had reached a consensus.

"When both labour and business come together and find an area where they can agree, I think you have to take that seriously," she told reporters Tuesday.

"I think they've achieved a good compromise, a good consensus, a good balance, and I'm going to take that advice very seriously."

The Labour Management Review Committee (LMRC) consists of five labour representatives and five business officials. It is asked to make recommendations to government on a variety of labour issues, including the setting of minimum-wage rates. The committee does not always come to an agreement, sometimes submitting a split recommendation. However, with a government friendly to labour indicating it was willing to ease restrictions on Sunday shopping, the group was able to reach a compromise in this case.

For the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, which has led the charge for more flexible shopping hours on Sundays, the LMRC's recommendation represented a partial victory.

"We'd still prefer to see wide-open (shopping) on Sundays to allow retailers to determine their own hours of operation," said Chuck Davidson, the chamber's vice-president of policy.

Davidson said if the government goes along with the LMRC's recommendation, the chamber will argue for even more liberal Sunday-shopping hours when the bill reaches the public-consultation stage.

The labour-management committee recommended stores always be closed on New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Canada Day, Labour Day and Christmas Day.

It noted a number of municipalities in Manitoba have never passed a Sunday-shopping bylaw. It recommended Sunday shopping continue to be prohibited in those communities unless they pass a bylaw.

Even in municipalities such as Winnipeg, that allow for Sunday shopping, local governments should still have to amend their bylaws before retailers in those communities could extend their hours, according to the LMRC.

The committee also recommended new legislation make clear that retail employees have the right to refuse Sunday work. It recommended an employee be required to give 14 days' notice when exercising this right. The committee also recommended strengthened enforcement to back up employees who decline Sunday work. It proposed allowing provincial employment standards officers to order compensation and reinstatement in cases where employees are terminated or otherwise discriminated against for exercising their right to refuse Sunday employment.

Deborah Green, general manager of the Polo Park mall, said retailers generally do not wish to remain open later than 6 p.m. on Sundays. But they and their customers will appreciate being able to open in the morning on Sundays and some other holidays.

"I think a lot of the public will be very happy with those hours," she said, referring to the LMRC recommendation.

Lanny McInnes, a local spokesman for the Retail Council of Canada, said there are some types of stores, however, that require more flexible hours than what the committee is proposing.

Garden centres, for instance, are much busier in spring and would benefit from being able to remain open later on Sundays in peak seasons -- as would their customers, he said. The same goes for stores that sell parts for household repairs.

"Retailers will certainly like the opportunity to extend their hours," McInnes said. "But having said that, it (the LMRC report) doesn't go as far as we had hoped that it would."

Howard said depending on how quickly municipalities revise their own bylaws, liberalization of Sunday-shopping laws in Manitoba could be in place by some time this fall.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

A committee of business and labour representatives has reached a consensus on Sunday shopping. Here are their main recommendations:

Municipalities should be allowed to permit Sunday shopping from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., a three-hour expansion from the current hours of noon to 6 p.m.;

The expanded hours should also apply to Louis Riel Day, Victoria Day and Thanksgiving Day;

Retail workers should have the right to refuse work on Sundays, provided they give their employer at least 14 days' notice; and

Employment standards officers should have the authority to order an employer to compensate or reinstate an employee penalized for exercising his or her right to refuse work on a Sunday.