This week several Bay stores closed in Canada due to a heatwave and a lack of maintenance to HVAC systems. The unprecedented situation has been going on for months.

Unifor Local 240 president Jodi Nesbitt, who represents workers at Hudson’s Bay in Windsor, told the Star the store’s air conditioning has been down for “some time” but is being repaired. In the meantime, full-time employees are still being paid, although they are not working in hot conditions, Nesbitt said.

Several Hudson’s Bay stores across Metro Vancouver were closed Tuesday due to what the company said were issues with their air conditioning systems, another blow to the retail giant’s Canadian operations,

The Bay has been forced to close stores across Western Canada over air conditioning issues amid the heatwave in the region.

The move, reported by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, ‘is a big deal,’ says a Toronto retail analyst of the multi-billion-dollar purchase with Amazon, Salesforce buying minority

The Hudson’s Bay store at Devonshire Mall in Windsor is temporarily closed. Security barricades are in place and signs posted on the exterior windows say the reason is “due to system issues.” Tiffany Bourre tells CTV News the store is undergoing maintenance on the HVAC (heating, ventilation & air conditioning) system.

The Victoria store at 1150 Douglas St., was closed as of Monday to maintenance issues related to the HVAC system. It was the same situation in Ontario, as the Bay store at the Devonshire Mall in Windsor was closed because of the heat and a non-working cooling system.