“Back in December the province proclaimed Bill 4 which is the Retail Businesses Hours of Operation Act,” explained city manager Anthony McInnis. “The bill eliminated the Sunday shopping hour restrictions. Businesses are no longer required to close after 6 p.m. on Sundays. The City of Thompson’s bylaw was based on the Retail Holiday Closing Act. Since that’s been repealed our bylaw no longer has any power.” The province has told municipalities that they still have the power to regulate retail operation hours in their communities if they decide to, McInnis noted. Coun. Jeff Fountain was wholly in favour of repealing the bylaw.
That is the highest number of EMS calls the department has ever head and it was the fifth straight year that there were more than 6,000 EMS calls. Fire calls, on the other hand, numbered 473 last year, down 264 from the highest ever total of 727 in 2019. With the exception of 2018 and 2019, fire calls have generally hovered from the mid-400s to mid-500s over the past 10 years. Calls requiring response from multiple units have increased greatly over the past decade, reaching nearly 3,300 in 2020, the highest number ever. 2019 was the first year that the department had more than 3,000 multiple unit calls and there have only been over 2,000 twice before that, in 2016 and 2018.
Thirty-three men, 12 women and one transgender person used the facility in November, according to a report from homeless shelter and Thompson Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) executive director Mitchelle Kelly. As overnight temperatures dipped to -30 and colder beginning Dec. 12, the homeless shelter began to fill up and outdoor ice rink warm-up buildings were opened to accommodate the overflow under the city’s cold weather policy. “Last night were at full capacity [at the shelter],” Kelly told the committee, adding that shelter staff communicate with emergency dispatchers when temperatures are cold and the shelter fills up so they know that if police or emergency services pick someone up to give them a ride, they can drop them off at the outdoor rink warm-up building instead of the shelter.