(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Licensing fees

Prince Albert to put a number on the broader cost of alcohol consumption in the city

Dec 13, 2019 | 5:12 PM

Prince Albert city administration has been tasked with compiling a report on the wider consequential costs of alcohol consumption in the city.

At Monday night’s council meeting, Coun. Terra Lennox-Zepp moved to have city staff quantify a business licence fee for stores and establishments selling alcohol based on the amount spent on regulation, investigation and enforcement of alcohol-related activities.

“I don’t know what the answer will be here,” she told paNOW. “But I think it is responsible for us as a city to look into what the appropriate amounts for business licensing fees are.”

Speaking during the meeting Coun. Evert Botha said he would also be interested in seeing those numbers, suggesting that based on weekly police statistics the potential licensing fee could be quite high.

“Between 60 to 80 per cent of our police budget is spent on alcohol and alcohol-related issues depending on which way it’s reported,” he told council.

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Meanwhile the spokesperson for a local alcohol awareness group says he’s pleased city council is examining the issue.

“This is just going to be fiscal — the dollar figure,” Robert Bratvold with the Community Alcohol Strategy Steering Committee told paNOW.

“That’s only a piece of it. It’s not the human impact that can be caused to families and things like that, but still, we should know that piece.”

However he also recommended that city council proceed with caution.

“If you simply say, ‘a business licence costs $100 and these investigations, enforcement and regulation cost this’, that won’t capture the whole impact of alcohol sales in the city,” he said. “There are some pretty clear statistics on to visits to the emergency room related to alcohol and you can’t just lay that at the feet of a business, but you should still know as a community what the costs of alcohol consumption are.”

City adminstration will prepare the requested report, which will come back to council for discussion at a future meeting.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom