St. Catharines Downtown Association

Several downtown St. Catharines supporters hope the promise of a performing arts complex will open the door to year-round shopping in the city's core.

Whether or not to designate the core as a tourist area should be revisited in light of Brock University's arts school and the city's performing arts centre, which is slated to open in 2013, said St. Patrick's City Coun. Mark Elliott.

The designation under Ontario's Retail Business Holidays Act would allow downtown shops to open during the province's nine statutory holidays.

Elliott, a former downtown merchant, pushed for the designation two years ago and asked for staff to draw up a report on the matter. But it was shelved as information for council.

Any changes have to go through Niagara Region, which is the body charged with determining whether an applicant makes a sufficient case for designation.

With financing for the performing arts centre recently secured and concrete plans to bring the wine route to St. Paul Street, it's time to rethink giving downtown St. Catharines a tourism designation, Elliott said.

"There's certain things we have to do if we want to be linked to tourism in the downtown core," Elliott said. "You have to be open when the tourists are going to be down here, which would be holidays. You have to have hours that are accessible to tourists."

Please see full story by M. Beech in The St. Catharines Standard at:

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2552592