Premier opens door to Sunday shopping vote

Nova Scotians could be voting once again on the issue of Sunday shopping.

Premier Rodney MacDonald says if his party wins the next provincial election, he'd like to see a plebiscite within a year and a half.

"I'm putting this question back to the people again," he said Thursday, suggesting a vote could be held during municipal elections in 2008.

The Sunday shopping issue was put on the ballot during municipal elections in October 2004. Fifty-five per cent of voters wanted the status quo, compared to 45 per cent who called for fewer shopping restrictions on Sundays.

• FROM OCT. 17, 2004: No Sunday shopping in Nova Scotia

There were complaints that the two questions on the ballot were confusing.

But immediately following the vote and even months later, then premier John Hamm repeatedly said the issue was settled.

Liberal Leader Francis MacKenzie said Thursday that another plebiscite is a costly waste of time, but he'd still like to consult the voters and allow each municipality to set its own shopping rules.

"Maybe the options are various zones in the province that can or cannot be open. But I want to see it done in consultation with the people, rather than just saying this is the way it's going to be and have a universal solution for everyone," MacKenzie said.

Like the premier, NDP Leader Darrell Dexter supports another plebiscite.

"You want to do it in a way that's going to be as cost-effective as possible, because the reality is that running plebiscites are expensive. If you could do it in co-ordination with municipal elections, that is one of the ways to reduce the cost associated with it," Dexter said.

Currently, stores under 4,000 square feet, specialty boutiques and pharmacies are allowed to open on Sunday.

Two grocery giants, Sobeys and Atlantic Superstores, complained last fall to the government that drugstores selling food were permitted to open while their stores had to shut down Sunday, and called for a level playing field.

As a result, the government introduced new regulations that say pharmacies can dedicate no more than 2,000 square feet of their retail space to groceries, nor can they have a retail sales area of more than 20,000 square feet.