Glebe shops could soon stay open on holidays

Shop owners in the Glebe will soon find out whetherthey can open their doorsand their tillsduring five annualholidays on which they've been forced to stay closed.

City of Ottawa staff arerecommending Glebe retailers be granted an exemptionfrom the province's Retail Business Holidays Act, under which most businesses must stay closed on designated holidays.

If city councillors approve the recommendation, retailers along Bank Street from the Queensway to Lansdowne Park will be given the option of remaining open onFamily Day, Thanksgiving, Labour Day, Canada Day andVictoria Day.

"It's a great step in the right direction," said Andrew Peck, executive director of the Glebe Business Improvement Area, which requested the exemption.

First theBIA needed to demonstrate that the neighbourhood is within two kilometres of a major attraction hardly a difficult challenge, Peck said.

"Being surrounded by the Rideau Canal, a UNESCO world heritage site, and now that Lansdowne is built ... it'san attraction itself."

Andrew Peck is the executive director of the Glebe Business Improvement Area.

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Peck is happy city staff agreed with Glebe BIA proposal to stay open on holidays.

Currently only the Rideau Centre, the Loblaws on Rideau Street, as well as the BIAs in the Byward Market, Sparks Streetand Downtown Rideau are allowed to remain open on holidaysbecause they are within a designated tourist area.

Peck said Glebe retailers, which have suffered through years of construction, are eager for the added business a tourist area designation can bring..

"It's going to define the area as a place to go spend time with their friends and familyand fellow citizens, Peck said. "I think it is going to make asignificantdifference."

Elizabeth Kilvert owns The Unrefined Olive in the Glebe

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Kilvert says staying open on holidays will attract families to the area

ElizabethKilvert, the owner of The Unrefined Olive, a shop on Second Avenue, saidif the majority of Glebe businesses choose to open on the holidays, the neighbourhood will see an influx of business.

"Ithink it's going to open up this whole area.People are coming here. They're curious about what's going on in this part of the world."

Last April,Whole FoodsatLansdowneParkgot into troublewith the lawwhen it opened on Good Friday. Good Friday is not among the holidays on which the BIA has requested its members be allowed to remain open.

The city's finance and economic development committee will consider the request next Tuesday.City councilwill make a finaldecision on Feb.10.