Labour Day Long Weekend 2026: LCBO Hours and GTA Delivery

Labour Day 2026 falls on Monday September 7, making the long weekend Saturday September 5 through Monday September 7. It is the last long weekend of the summer, the end of cottage season, and the weekend the CNE closes out with the Air Show.

It is also, unlike the August Civic Holiday three weeks earlier, a weekend where the retail situation is completely unambiguous.

Is the LCBO open on Labour Day? No.

Labour Day is one of Ontario’s nine statutory holidays. That is the meaningful difference from the Civic Holiday in August, which is a municipal holiday where stores set their own policy and hours vary location by location.

On a statutory holiday, LCBO stores close across the province. So does the Beer Store. This is not a store-by-store question and there is no point checking the locator hoping for an exception. Our LCBO hours guide covers the regular schedule the rest of the year.

Grocery stores licensed to sell beer, cider and wine keep their own holiday hours and are the only retail option on the Monday itself, with a limited range and no spirits. If you want anything beyond beer or a basic wine, the Monday is a delivery day.

When to shop

Saturday September 5 is the right day. Full hours, deep stock, and you avoid both the Friday-evening rush and the Sunday early close.

Friday September 4 after work is the busiest window of the weekend, as it is before every long weekend. If you are heading north, buy before you leave the city rather than stopping en route — selection thins badly on the highway corridors and cottage-country outlets run out of the popular formats by Friday night. Our cottage stocking guide has the per-person maths for a full weekend away.

The CNE finishes this weekend

The CNE runs through to Labour Day itself, with the Canadian International Air Show over the waterfront across the long weekend. That means Exhibition Place and the Lakeshore are busy all three days, and delivery windows in that corridor fill earlier than usual.

If you are hosting near the waterfront or downtown, order earlier in the day than you normally would. The Air Show afternoons in particular put a great many people into one part of the city at once.

What to stock for the last weekend of summer

The final barbecue

Labour Day weekend is the last proper barbecue of the year for most people, and it tends to be a bigger, longer gathering than a mid-summer one for exactly that reason. Beer does the heavy lifting — Molson Canadian and Coors Light by the case, with Corona Extra or Stella Artois for variety. The full beer selection is worth a look if you are covering a crowd.

If you are working out quantities, our guide to how much alcohol to buy per person has the numbers by guest count and party length.

Early September is still seltzer weather

Daytime temperatures across the GTA in early September usually stay warm enough that hard seltzer still moves fast in the afternoon. A variety pack covers guests whose preferences you cannot predict.

Evenings turn

The real shift this weekend is after sundown. Early September evenings get genuinely cool, and people move off cold light drinks onto wine or something warming much earlier than they did in July. Have a red open, and have a whisky on hand — a rye like Crown Royal Deluxe suits the turn in the weather. Our fall cocktails guide is the right reference from here onward.

If you run out on the Monday

This is the predictable failure. Everything is shut, the barbecue is still going, and the beer fridge was emptied on Sunday night. J&J delivers across the GTA through the long weekend including Labour Day Monday itself, with an average delivery time of around 35 minutes.

See how delivery works, or the 24-hour service for the late windows once the evening runs long.

Covered through the long weekend

J&J Alcohol Delivery covers Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill, Oakville, Burlington and North York, seven days a week and long after the LCBO has closed. Browse the full range at our shop or call (437) 328-0030.