The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Thompson won't be joining its northern neighbours in Flin Flon and The Pas in expanding Sunday shopping hours _ at least not yet. Thompson City Council had approved first reading of a bylaw to add three hours to Sunday shopping, but the second reading failed to carry on Aug. 13. The vote was actually a 3-3 tie, which under council rules equates to a defeat. The Manitoba government recently permitted municipalities to allow retailers to open on Sundays as early as 9 a.m. instead of noon. Flin Flon City Council was not required to pass a bylaw, as its existing rule on Sunday shopping automatically made the new hours legal in the community. In The Pas, town council has okayed a bylaw that will permit the new shopping hours effective Sept. 1. But to the dismay of some businesses and residents, Thompson was a different story. Thompson Deputy Mayor Dennis Fenske favours more Sunday shopping. 'We (Thompson) sell ourselves as a regional centre and a lot of the outlying communities come in to shop on the weekends,' said Fenske. 'We've said that for years in arguing our census that we have a major influx on weekends, and businesses know that weekends are busier than normal because of the outlying areas. My thinking was that the extra three hours on Sunday morning, especially in the winter with the winter roadways, if I could get on the road two or three hours earlier than I would take advantage of that as opposed to waiting until noon and not getting out of town until it's getting dark.' Fenske said the City of Thompson should not stand in the way of business. 'It's an optional thing _ businesses don't have to open the three hours earlier, but they have the option,' he said. _ With files from Matt Durnan, Thompson Citizen
