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<\/p>\nQuebec is the only Canadian province that still broadly regulates retail opening hours year-round, Samuel Poulin, the province\u2019s minister for small- and medium-size businesses, said in an email. Most retail shops, aside from pharmacies and grocery stores, must close by 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sundays.<\/p>\n
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The strict rules were imposed to protect employees\u2019 work-life balance and help smaller shops compete with larger chains, which can often afford the overhead costs of longer operating hours, the government says. But with the growing popularity of online shopping, brick-and-mortar stores are facing tight rules on operating hours when their competitors \u2014 giant platforms like Shein and Temu \u2014 have no similar restrictions.<\/p>\n
And while Whitley is happy he will soon be able to open his clothing store until 9 p.m. on weekends, other Montreal retail owners, like Suzanne Foucault, don\u2019t share his enthusiasm.<\/p>\n
Owner of Uchuu, a clothing store on Laurier Avenue West, Foucault said that spreading the same number of customers over longer operating hours would increase staffing costs without necessarily generating additional revenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would only dilute sales, not increase them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Online shopping already allows customers to buy outside of store hours. \u201cPeople are working from home; they won\u2019t come out to shop,\u201d Foucault said.<\/p>\n
Myriam \u00c9lie, owner of jewelry store Myel, also on Laurier Avenue West, echoed that opinion. \u201cWe\u2019re not planning on extending our hours,\u201d she said, noting that 20 to 30 per cent of her store\u2019s sales are online.<\/p>\n
Jennifer Glasgow of Jennifer Glasgow Boutique on St-Laurent Boulevard said she may adjust hours, but only seasonally, \u201cwhen the days get longer, and the temperature rises.\u201d Cold weather, she said, doesn\u2019t encourage late-day shopping.<\/p>\n
The recent pilot project stems from trials conducted last year in three Quebec cities \u2014 Gatineau, Laval, and St-Georges \u2014 where businesses could stay open until 8 p.m. voluntarily<\/p>\n
There are exceptions to Quebec\u2019s strict rules \u2014 two special zones in downtown are permitted to set their own operating hours. As well, two other zones in the central part of the city are allowed stay open until 8 p.m. on weekends.<\/p>\n
Shopping centres across Montreal are approaching the pilot project in their own ways.<\/p>\n
Andrew Lutfy, the head of Royalmount, a newly opened high-end shopping and entertainment complex in midtown Montreal, said he supports the added flexibility. \u201cThe government should not get involved in our operations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Beginning March 11, Royalmount will operate from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday to Tuesday, and from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday. \u201cBrands and customers are asking us to stay open longer, especially on weekends,\u201d Lutfy said. \u201cTenants have no choice; they will have to follow suit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other shopping areas are more cautious. The marketing team for Place Ville Marie \u2014 the tower complex at the corner of McGill College Avenue and Cathcart Street in downtown Montreal \u2014 has no plans to extend opening hours under the pilot. <\/p>\n
Roger Gagn\u00e9, economist and director of the Centre for Studies on Productivity and Prosperity in Montreal, said a business will adapt \u201caccording to the needs of its customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will likely not have uniform opening hours across the retail sector.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lutfy agreed. \u201cIt\u2019s not an all-sizes-fit-all solution,\u201d he said, adding that smaller boutiques may not see the benefit.<\/p>\n
Gagn\u00e9 does not expect longer hours to significantly change consumer behaviour. \u201cPeople won\u2019t start consuming more because opening hours are different,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will just increase their comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n
Renaud Brossard, vice-president of communications at the Montreal Economic Institute, says the pilot does not go far enough. \u201cMost provinces actually don\u2019t have any regulated business hours outside of specific holidays,\u201d he said, noting that in Ontario, businesses can theoretically operate 24\/7 but rarely do. The flexibility, he said, allows retailers to adjust as needed.<\/p>\n
Julia Posca, a researcher at the institute for socioeconomic research and information \u2014 IRIS \u2014 said extended hours may add pressure on labour shortages. \u201cIt\u2019s going to complicate the issues, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d she said. She noted there were 11,300 vacant retail jobs in Quebec as of mid-December 2025 \u2014 a number lower than during the COVID-19 pandemic but still significant, she said.<\/p>\n
For her part, Foucault said hiring has been a challenge. \u201cWe\u2019ve already had difficulty finding people to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lutfy, however, believes extended hours could create opportunities for part-time workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we take a look around our shops today at 4 o\u2019clock in the afternoon, we can see that it is mainly young part-time workers who are working these hours,\u201d he said. \u201cUltimately, it will create job openings that will be filled by young people.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2026.<\/p>\n
Charlotte Glorieux, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quebec is the only Canadian province that still broadly regulates retail opening hours year-round, Samuel Poulin, the province\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[879,49,48,2467,2338,2461,2468,2460,2462,2463,44,2464,2465,2466,82],"class_list":["post-513547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-breaking-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-central-vancouver-island","tag-montreal","tag-nanaimo","tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","tag-nanaimo-news","tag-nanaimo-news-now","tag-nanaimonewsnow","tag-news","tag-oceanside","tag-parksville","tag-qualicum","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}