And yet, outside The Merry Dairy – an ice cream shop in Hintonburg – a line of customers, some still wearing pajamas, forms soon after sunrise.

Ice cream? In the dead of an Ottawa winter?

Yes, says the shop’s owner, Marlene Haley.

“People think it’s too cold for ice cream,” she said in an interview. “But ice cream in the winter is a great treat.”

“We have a line of customers waiting outside in their snow suits, winter coats and caps in the cold, hoping to receive a hot chocolate, coffee or ice cream on a freshly-made waffle.”

The annual event, dubbed IC4B, which stands for Ice Cream for Breakfast, is just one of the innovative ways The Merry Dairy tries to remain in the hearts of its customers in the off-season.

The winter months are hard for many small businesses in Canada, grappling with a variety of difficulties, including low sales, labour shortages and supply disruptions. But it can be a particularly challenging time for small businesses that depend heavily on or are generally associated with warmer weather.

To confront this challenge, many small businesses use the winter months to get ready for the upcoming spring, explore new merchandising opportunities or take advantage of e-commerce to reach customers who don’t want to leave the warm and cozy confines of their homes.

Stocking up or shutting down?

Brandon Chin Quee, who manages Tall Tree Cycles, an independently-owned bicycle shop on Sunnyside Avenue in Old Ottawa South, said one big challenge during the winter is that business is slow, with the majority of the shop’s sales made in the spring and summer seasons.

Since there are hardly any sales during the winter, he said the business has to refocus and plan for the warmer months, which are its busiest periods. “Winter season is a time we stock up on bikes for sale. The season is tough for small businesses,” he said.

A 2023 survey from KPMG reported by the Canadian Press said 60 per cent of small businesses are affected by the weather, with 44 per cent seeing a direct hit to revenue.

Artistic Landscape Design, a garden centre on Bank Street near Greenboro station, is another business that feels the drop in temperature, both physically and in its sales.

Mostafa Fallah, the garden centre’s horticulturist and general manager, says the outdoor gardening industry during the winter is non-existent because most plants cannot survive the cold weather. That sometimes forces shops like his to make difficult decisions.

“Sometimes shutting down is better than not because a huge amount would be spent on labour and operations, which are more expensive,” he said.

Fallah said the garden centre has ventured into the sale of Christmas trees and decorations. But unfortunately, according to the horticulturist, there is not a big demand in Ottawa for artificial or regular Christmas trees, hence, the business is not making a lot of sales.

Exploring innovative solutions to thrive in winter

Josephine Mensah, a business advisor at Oneness Career Coaching Inc. in Ottawa, urged small business owners to proactively develop solid plans for the winter season to avoid being caught off guard.

“Businesses should carefully evaluate their business plans and have exceptions for these kinds of emergencies,” she said. “They should have an inventory where they take stock of the business activities and confirm the kind of verification they have on their website.”

Mensah also said close monitoring of the weather and anticipating the losses that can occur during the winter season would enable business owners to plan adequately.

The use of e-commerce has helped boost small businesses, said Bowen James, a professor at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa.

James, whose research work is focused on small businesses, including start-ups, as well as teaching practical applications of technology, said buying and selling goods and services over the internet has helped small businesses achieve a large clientele.

In his opinion, e-commerce sales platforms would help to expand the reach of small businesses during the winter. “The commerce environment is one of the attractions in the wintertime because of free shipping or the emphasis on same-day delivery,” he said.

Another method of survival for small businesses is reducing prices to keep customers coming, he added.

“People want to go somewhere warm and have an interesting shopping experience,” James said. “Small businesses should reinvent their business and start selling beverages and food products so that when people go to the store, they can have some hot apple cider.”

James said the challenge of the winter months is that an interruption of the customer’s buying pattern could be permanently disruptive, adding that what small businesses need to do is reestablish those buying patterns as quickly as possible.

Thriving despite the storm

While many businesses slow down or shut down during the winter, some reinvent themselves.

Haley, whose shop, The Merry Dairy, is known for its hand-made, original-recipe premium ice cream and nut-free frozen custard, uses clever marketing to capitalize on the winter season.

The Merry Dairy has attempted to adapt and overcome the winter lull by introducing festive flavours just in time for Christmas. In addition to the holiday-themed flavours and annual Ice Cream for Breakfast event, Haley has delved into business ideas like delivery services, as many individuals find it difficult to leave their homes at night during the colder months.

“We offer ice cream delivery from Wednesday through Saturday, which has significantly increased our sales,” she said.

Storytelling is also part of the strategy the business has explored, using beautiful photographs of ice cream that make people excited to want a taste, evoking a strong sense of nostalgia.

Haley pointed out there are few businesses making ice cream cakes, and that’s something she sells a lot of in the winter because people still have birthdays in the winter.

“Every single winter has been different,” she said. “And that has influenced customer buying patterns for ice cream.”

An expert on oceans and fisheries slammed a recent Federal Court decision to overturn the Liberal government’s ban on single-use plastics, calling the move “terrible” for oceans and marine life.

While Canada plans to achieve net zero plastic waste by 2030, the possibility of this has just been pushed further away, according to Rashid Sumaila, an economist at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

“This does not help us meet that target,” he said. “It makes it more difficult.”

The Federal Court ruled on Nov. 16 that the listing of plastic manufactured items as toxic substances was both unreasonable and unconstitutional under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.

Justice Angela Furlanetto said in her decision that the “thousands” of goods in that category of plastics all have unique purposes and chemical compositions and there is no evidence showing that any of them pose a threat to human health or the environment.

“Our government intends to appeal the Federal Court’s decision and we are exploring all options to continue leading the fight against plastic pollution,” Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and Justice Minister Arif Virani said in a joint statement Nov. 20.

Environment Canada did not respond to a request for comment.

With low recycling efforts, Sumaila said he worries the environment will be impacted as plastics such as straws are used and thrown away in landfills.

“It is terrible for the environment, the ocean and the animals that live in the ocean because plastic pollution is one of the big problems the oceans are facing,” he said.

Sumaila said some water animals, such as fish, see this microplastic in the ocean and mistake it for algae —a plant— and they eat it.

“These plastics can pollute the fish, and if we eat the same fish, we get polluted,” said Sumaila, who holds a Canada Research Chair in interdisciplinary oceans and fisheries economics.

He said the court may have thought its decision was best for Canadians, but for the environment, it is bad.

Concerned about her future and the environment, an undergraduate student at Carleton University said she is optimistic the federal government will put in place an adequate plan to fight climate change.

“Climate anxiety is something I think about,” said Sophia Foglia, a fourth-year journalism student.

Foglia said she is worried about the climate and tries not to work herself up. “I hope there is a sustainable plan for the future because climate change and its negative impact are real.”

The 21-year-old said she hopes the Canadian government finds a lasting solution to climate issues.

“With the overturn of the single-use plastic ban, I am terribly disturbed about the impact on our climate,” she said. “The floods, wildfires and erosion are all linked to climate change.”

The court’s decision was also slammed by leading environmental groups, including Greenpeace Canada.

“This decision is a step backwards for the environment but will just cause backlash for Big Plastic — these are companies producing plastics. Big Plastics thinks it operates in a silo where it can keep producing and profiting amidst the pollution amidst climate crises surrounding it,” said Sarah King, Greenpeace Canada’s head of oceans and plastics campaigns, in a statement.

King’s statement urged the Canadian government to appeal the decision, continue to take strong measures to achieve zero plastic waste by 2030 and support an ambitious treaty that helps accelerate a just transition to a reuse-based economy.

“Plastic pollution is not only an environmental problem but also a climate crisis,” Sumaila said.

Sumaila said more plastic in the environment means more generational carbon dioxide, which aggravates climate change. The consequences are huge, affecting the temperature and resulting in melting ice caps and a rise in sea levels.

Sumaila said all these can lead to more flooding and wildfires, as witnessed in June 2021, when the town of Lytton, B.C., experienced higher temperatures than West Africa, hitting almost 50C, and a devastating wildfire that destroyed about 1,000 buildings.