Sudbury city council scraps store hours bylaws

Stores in Sudbury can now open and close whenever they want.

City council voted to scrap the bylaws regulating store hours on a regular shopping week, as well as Boxing Day and August Civic Holiday, at Tuesday night's meeting.

The long-standing and contentious issue was put to a referendum in October and while the voters clearly selected deregulation, there wasn't a high enough turnout to make the vote binding.

So, it came back to Sudbury city council for a decision at its first meeting.

Dozens of people showed up at city hall and some requested a chance to speak to council on the issue, before a decision was made.

But in a tight vote, city council decided to not allow citizens to speak at the meeting, which prompted much heckling from the audience. Many questioned the openness of the new council so soon after the election and accused the city of being a "sham democracy" and of making "phony promises" about openness and transparency.

'Democracy has taken place'

But speaking after the meeting, Mayor Brian Bigger dismissed those claims.

"The key thing here is democracy has taken place and everybody had the opportunity to establish their points of view and get their points across," he said.

City Councillor Joscelyne Landry-Altmann said the time to speak up was during the referendum campaign.

"The people have spoken. The majority was achieved by those who bothered to vote."

I struggled with this one from the very beginning.- Michael Vagnini, Ward 2 councillor

They clearly voted against the store hours bylaws on all three referendum questions, but not enough of them voted to make it binding.

But newly elected Ward 5 city councillor Robert Kirwan said that doesn't matter.

"They may not be binding, but they are valid."

Still, a few city councillors voted to keep store hours regulated.

One of them was Michael Vagnini, who based his decision on the referendum results from his ward, with a majority in the Lively and Copper Cliff areas voting to keep the bylaws.

But Vagnini said despite that, this was not an easy choice.

"I struggled with this one from the very beginning."

Ward 7 councillor Mike Jakubo said he also struggled with his decision, ultimately voting "no."

He said that was based purely on wanting Boxing Day shopping to remain illegal in Greater Sudbury, a view he based on "talking with lots of different residents, considering all people affected."

The decades-old debate might grind on, but Sudbury retail stores can now be open whenever they want, except on provincial and national holidays.