West Hants and area

Dauphinee awarded gold

West Hants Chamber of Commerce Congratulations go to West Hants Warden Richard Dauphinee for recently receiving from the Province a Gold Award for 20 years of service to the Municipality.

New Hantsport storage facility

Hantsport Self Storage is now open for business. Sixteen lighted and unheated storage units are now available with easy access of Highway 101. http://www.hantsportselfstorage.com or call 798-7358

High Speed by 2009

The province recently awarded Eastlink its contract to install high speed internet to parts of central and south west Nova Scotia with a promise that all communities will be ‘connected’ by 2009. Seaside Cable in Cape Breton was awarded the tender for North Eastern parts of the province as well as Cape Breton, while Aliant retains the HRM contract. More than 85 representatives of various Annapolis Valley businesses, community organizations and government agencies met recently to learn about the potential of the Valley Community Fibre Network, coming to the region soon. The system is a community-owned and -operated 72-strand fibre optic network. For 186 kilometres, it follows Highway 1, connecting Halifax with Middleton and numerous municipal partners, institutes and customers along the route. Eighty percent of the network is finished, with completion expected by early in the new year. For more information, contact Jennifer Taylor, business development officer at the Kings Community Economic Development Agency at 902-670-9256, or visit the website, www.vcfn.ca. (Source: The Chronicle Herald, NS Business Journal)

Provincial & Regional

NSP third time lucky
Nova Scotia Power Inc. might be able to raise — or lower — electricity rates without a public hearing, starting in 2010.The utility received conditional approval Monday to automatically link electricity bills to its own fuel costs. It was the third time the power company brought a fuel adjustment mechanism (FAM) proposal to the URAB table. The fuel adjustment mechanism kicks in Jan. 1, 2009, but the company says customers won’t see any change in their bills until 2010. Under the new system, the utility’s fuel costs will be tied to electricity bills and changes will be made annually without a public hearing before the Utility and Review Board. The board said it expects a high level of disclosure to ensure customers are not overcharged. It will watch closely the level of disclosure by NSP during a trial period between April 1 and Aug. 1 of next year. (Source: The Chronicle Herald).

GST Reduction Update

The Canadian Revenue Agency recently released its latest Excise and GST/HST news bulletin regarding the 2008 rate reduction, available here
 

Scotiabank employees file class-action suit

Scotiabank is the second Canadian bank to be slapped with a multi-million dollar class-action lawsuit alleging years of unpaid overtime. A lawyer behind the case expects similar charges to spread to the other big banks and into the broader workforce. “I think I can safely say that I will be very surprised if this is the last lawsuit of this type,” said Douglas Elliott, a partner at Roy Elliott Kim O’Connor LLP, one of two law firms that filed the case in an Ontario court Monday. In an interview with The Canadian Press, Elliott said other firms could face similar lawsuits. "We’re looking at all Canadian employers — we’re not excluding anyone." The action involves over 5,000 current and non-management staff who are or were personal bankers or other front-line customer service employees seeking $350 million in damages. The statement of claim for the Scotiabank case alleges that the bank’s workers are assigned heavier workloads than can be completed within standard working hours and are forced to work unpaid overtime. The suit calls it a contravention of the Canadian Labour Code. Scotiabank responded with a statement declaring that it is confident its employee policies have been applied fairly and consistently, and that its overtime policy is based on the labour code. "We remain committed to treating our employees with respect and to fostering a positive work environment," the bank added.


Special Report – Retailers wrestle with Boxing Day

Regulating retailing hours in the province is once again being hotly debated as the Province is set to pass legislation to ban store retailing on all statutory holidays. The government signalled an about-face on the issue Friday by calling debate on a Liberal bill that would outlaw shopping on statutory holidays, among them, New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Shopping on Remembrance Day is already banned through a separate piece of legislation. When retail workers were demanding a holiday on Labour Day, the Premier told reporters in August, "We have made our decision [to not regulate closure on statutory holidays] and we stand by that decision.”

Not all business and retailers are able to operate equally, however. Debating the merits of regulating, for example, the airlines, restaurants, pharmacies, gas retailers and hotels among others aren’t at issue in the legislation – at least, as far as the government is concerned, for now. Employees from these sectors we spoke had plenty to say about that when calling around to local businesses to get reaction to the legislation. Several indicated legislated holidays were also on their wish list, too, but understood it is really the pressures of consumer supply and demand which determine whether or not this happens. “A large number of people expect to purchase our products during any statutory holiday and especially on Boxing Day as many people travel and visit friends and family,” said one Tim Horton’s employee who wished to remain anonymous. “As much as I don’t like it, I have to work on that day, it’s just reality.” Christmas Day is the only day Tim Horton’s is closed throughout the entire year.

By the time Christmas Eve rolls around, though, demand - and margins - in retail stores starts to drop dramatically. Customers have shopped until they’ve dropped and may feel that they don’t even want to see another store until the next Christmas. Likewise, store owners and employees have been put through their paces for at least a month prior to the holiday, with extended hours, special displays and sales, long line ups of patrons wishing to purchase, enquire about their wares. Faced with returns and Boxing Day mahem after the holiday is just as busy. In fact, Stats Canada recently released that Nova Scotians are second only to Albertans for the most spent on gifts at Christmastime – and that’s only probably because there are more Nova Scotians living in Alberta right now than in Nova Scotia.

The Halifax Chamber of Commerce says they are dismayed by the government’s decision to pursue the legislation. In a recent press release, the Chamber advocated instead that business should let the market dictate when they should be open, allowing store retailers to determine themselves when they open. “This means that customers will determine when they want to be served, and retailers know their customers best,” says Valerie Payn, president of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce. “

In response to the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, Premier MacDonald explained that after deregulating Sunday shopping hours, he did leave it up to retailers to decide if they should close on holidays. “What resulted was individual stores and malls changing their plans in the days leading up to holidays,” he said. It confused consumers, employees complained, and employers were unclear about what they could or could not do. Ultimately it is today’s business climate clashing with our traditions and values - in the form of statutory holidays - that are creating the vacuum, not the actual days on which you can legally sell vacuums. Naturally both employers and employees look to the labour laws of the land and those who create them. In light of that, it is not surprising the Premier felt the responsibility to make the decision he did to support this legislation.

Bill No. 72, the Retail Business Holiday Closing Act, was introduced as a Private Member’s Bill by Liberal leader Stephen MacNeil on December 5th. To read the bill as it’s been introduced, click here.
 

Labour Minister Mark Parent says it was not partisan pressure that tipped the balance in support of the legislation, but the opinions of many retailers throughout the Province who wanted the clarification. As the retailer’s opinions are not unlike what the Halifax Chamber of Commerce is saying, one wonders if the remedy the Province is suggesting is the appropriate one. “The Chamber is concerned that if such changes to legislation proceed, we will once again descend into a situation in which the government is left to adjudicate among competing businesses,” said Payn. It appears not to be question of regulating who stays open, but a matter of who works in the stores who have opted to be open until now, and who adjudicates among the employees wanting a holiday they deserve: employers or the Department of Environment and Labour.

A closer analysis of this perfect storm might also be explained by some decisions made for Atlantic Canadian stores at their head offices in Ontario, where they have the population to sustain profit margins on any given day – a kind of “what’s good for the goose is also good in Gander” approach. Unfortunately, this is what also fuels the “they do it in Ontario,” argument, leading many proponents of deregulated shopping hours to advocate the values of Nova Scotians go in a direction that is the opposite of forward. (Even though PEI, NB and NFld were also late to add Sunday shopping to their lists for similar arguments made by opponents of deregulation in Nova Scotia.) But this regional rule of thumb does not apply to every retailer operating in the maritimes. If anything, a provincial law supporting the closures gives retailers protection from decisions of their head offices which might be located elsewhere in the country.

Of all the local retailers who were called for comment, only the Atlantic Superstore said that their stores were set to open on Boxing Day before this development late last week at the Legislature. Central, a maritime company, qualified their response by saying they were not ready to commit to a closure Boxing Day. Pharmacies are normally always open on Boxing Day, but this year is a little different, says Elizabeth Colbourne, Lawton’s Front End Manager in Windsor. “We have some extended hours this year, much to our employee’s dismay. For now, we are open until 6 pm on Christmas Eve and until 6 on Boxing Day.” Lawton’s is owned by Stellerton-based Sobeys.  Home Hardwares in Brooklyn, Windsor and in Hantport will all be closed.

Local retailer Jeff Redden at Windsor Home Hardware applauds the Province for finally setting the record straight on how stores like his regulate opening hours on statutory holidays which force retailers to close. “We needed this to fall back on at the same time they legalized Sunday Shopping – they fumbled this big time and it created total confusion regarding how we should be proceeding,” says Redden. “We’re not a big box store, but we’re bigger than most around here, and I’ve got 33 members of staff to consider, as well as their families,” says Redden. “It works for us, because we also pride ourselves on being a family business. We strongly feel that statutory holidays, like Sundays, are days we need to take back for ourselves and for our employees.”

Other West Hants retailers we called, such as Sobeys and Sears, also expressed they were happy to close on Boxing Day, and like Redden, didn’t feel they needed they needed a law but happy one was put in place to clarify what was the law. Others, such as gas retailers, expressed they were happy to either be open or on call as they usually are.
“The [Halifax] Chamber feels businesses should be responding to the needs of consumers, not those seeking to regulate the retail industry,” says Payne. “Retailers should be available to their customers when they want to shop, and holidays should be no exception,” says Payn. “If the potential for business is there, then retailers should be there to open. We are not saying that stores should be open 24/7, but we do object to government regulation of what should be a purely business decision,” she said.

Exploring business potential is what businesses do year round, and as much as the market provides opportunity, increased competition resulting from deregulation also presents real pressures that can affect the bottom line. Redden said he did feel pressure to open Windsor Home Hardware on Sundays when that legislation first came down the pipe. The store experimented with limited Sunday hours last spring during the lawn and garden season between April and June. The exercise not only proved unprofitable, but also uneconomical. “We found it not only cut into our bottom line, it just spread out our Saturday and Monday business,” he said.

“The only time Sunday shopping makes sense for us is around this time of year because more people are out shopping and there is a need,” says Redden. The Fort Edward Mall, where his store is located, has had limited Sunday hours since the last week of November. But Redden is careful to qualify his statement, too. “There’s nothing wrong with chasing the Sunday business or holiday market, but likewise there is nothing backward about resolving to stay closed on the day either,” he says. “We simply don’t have the population to sustain it like larger city centers,” he says, “What it does do is give the larger markets another day they can pull people from smaller communities and smaller businesses if they want to shop, depending on the retailer.” Likewise, statutory holiday shopping takes business away from convenience retailers who normally get their share of the pie when everyone else is closed.

For retailers like Redden, however, competing with the HRM for business doesn’t mean folding their arms in front of them and giving up. “We simply have to find other ways to market and serve those customers and make what hours we are open appealing.” Aggressive promotion of the store’s Christmasland in the Metro market, says Redden, is successfully pulling business out of the HRM. “The urban shopper is pleasantly surprised by the high-quality customer service they encounter. It pales in comparison to poor service they may come to accept in the city, where shopping in hardware has become more or less self-serve with a high-turn over of staff in many places,” he says. Similarly local furniture retailer, Hawboldts, is also going after the metro market with their ‘It’s worth the drive” campaign in metro newspapers and radio with some success. ”We’re not open on Boxing Day, that’s the law,” one employee there enthusiastically proclaimed.

As for local shoppers, Redden says he finds they simply adapt to the hours the store is open. “And we thank them for that. Some people may think that we’re limiting access to consumers, but you know, we are still open 75 hours a week. We feel that’s a large enough window for customers to come in when they want something from us. They know if we’re not open a certain day, they’ll come in the day before or the day after. Likewise, we get to know them and their business, so to speak, about what they need.”

Meanwhile, with regulated retailing hours on holidays, Redden says feels he can give his employees what they need - a deserved break to be with their loved ones. “It’s good for our moral and our ethics,” he says, “that’s also good for business.”

At the end of the day, be it Christmas or another day, all businesses caters to their customers and employees in different ways which make good business sense – and cents – for them. Regardless of what the Legislature decides this week in Halifax, in West Hants, it will probably be business as usual for most retailers, at least on Boxing Day. Whether or not the laws of the universe will prevail throughout the year, namely survival of the fittest, remains to be seen.

Local Retail Holiday Hours

Rather than bring our members our usual selection of community events, the following are hours of operation for local retailers gathered on December 10, 2007. In some cases the hours are still in flux, changing by an hour or two, and in other cases, had not yet made decisions on when they were going to be open. In these cases, market pressures might make all the difference. Unless hours are specified, businesses are closed for both Christmas and Boxing Day. It’s always a good thing to call ahead to avoid disappointment.

Grocery retailers:

Sobeys
Dec 17-22 Regular Hours 8 am – 10 pm
Special Sunday Hours December 23rd 8 – 10 pm
December 24th – 7 – 5 pm
Closed Xmas and Boxing Day
Xmas Eve 7 am – 5 pm
New Years Eve 8 am - 6 pm

Atlantic Superstore
Week before Xmas 7 am – 11 pm
Sunday December 23rd 10 – 10 pm
Closed Christmas Day
Boxing Day – If the holiday ban does not pass, they will be open 8 am -6 pm.

Hantsport Save Easy - same as Atlantic Superstore

Gas Retailers:

Vaughan’s Petro Canada & Market
Christmas Eve - open until 8 pm
Christmas Day - 11 am – 6 pm.
Boxing Day - 6 am and regular 24/7 thereafter.

Dave’s Service Station (Petro Canada, Falmouth)
Closed 5 pm Xmas Eve

Lakeside Variety, Lower Vaughan
Christmas Eve until 8 pm
Christmas Day open 2 pm – 6 pm for now; might be longer on the day.
Boxing Day Open 7 am – 10 pm

Ultramar – “We only close if the power goes out.”

Irving – Falmouth - unavailable

Irving – Garland’s Crossing
Christmas Eve - Open until 8 pm
Christmas Day – 10am -10pm
Boxing Day 8am – 11pm

MacLean’s Petro Canada (Brooklyn)
Closing between 4 – 6 pm on Christmas Eve
Open Boxing Day afternoon for a few hours

Pharmacies

Cochrane’s – closed at 3 pm
Lawton’s - open until 6 pm Christmas Eve and Boxing Day 9 -6 pm.

Pharmasave - unavailable

Home and Hardware

TimBR Mart – regular hours, No Sunday openings

Hawboldt’s – From Dec 16th will be open until 9 pm, Sat regular til 5 pm
No Sunday openings

Hood Hardware & Automotive Ltd. – Regular hours, no Sundays openings,
Christmas Eve close at 3:00 pm.

Tim Hortons

All locations closed Christmas Eve at 3 pm
Open Boxing Day at 6 am.

Cole Drive is 24 hours; Water Street closes at midnight
New Years closing at 6 pm, but open New Years Day at 8 am.

Fort Edward Mall location observes mall hours.

Fort Edward Mall – Sat until 6 pm, M-F til 9pm
And limited Sunday openings in Nov/Dec 12 - 5 pm.

Santa Claus is at the Mall: Thurs – Fri 6-8 Sat 11 am -1pm 2-4 pm
(The week before Christmas you can see him there doing his overtime.)
Photos $4.00

Moonlight madness at Fort Edward Mall Dec 20 – all stores open until 11 pm
The $500 home hardware shopping spree draw will also be held. Ballots with every purchase from now until then.


Chuckles
 

A small man pushed his way to the front of the Boxing Day sale line up outside a local department store, only to be pushed back, amid loud and colorful curses. On the man's second attempt, he was punched square in the jaw and knocked around a bit and then thrown to the end of the line again. As he got up the second time, he complained to the person at the end of the line, "That does it! If they hit me one more time, I'm not opening the store!"

The West Hants Chamber of Commerce E-News is taking a holiday. We’ll be back on January 15, 2008. We wish you and yours a safe, joyous holiday season, with much peace and prosperity in 2008.