Alcohol on sale (File photo/larongeNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

liquor access and excess

P.A. seeks province’s input on cutting liquor retail hours

Aug 23, 2019 | 8:00 AM

The City of Prince Albert will ask the province if and how it can curtail alcohol retail hours.

According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the rate of hospitalizations caused by alcohol in Prince Albert is 76 per cent higher than the national average, and 22 per cent higher than the provincial average.

“It is a destroyer of families. It is a destroyer of communities. It is a destroyer of lives along with the other various substances that are being abused in our community,” city councillor Evert Botha told paNOW following the council discussion on the matter earlier this week. “This, for us, is to take a first step towards making our community safer.”

Looking north for precedent

The town of La Ronge recently moved to ensure stores can only sell alcohol from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and between 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Sunday. Lounges, taverns and special-use facilities may serve alcohol as late as 1 a.m.

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Botha would like to see Prince Albert do something similar.

“You see how wrong things start going at midnight in this community,” Botha told council. “You just need to take a drive around the community at those hours of the morning and see the line-ups at some of the drive-throughs.”

He said the large number of early morning calls to police involving alcohol could be reduced if stores stopped selling it earlier.

“There’s an old adage that nothing good happens after midnight and I think that’s probably something that we need to practice in our community,” Botha said.

Another councillor highlighted frustration with the current situation.

“We experimented with changing the liquor laws in Saskatchewan and for our community it’s not working,” Councillor Dennis Nowoselsky said.

Responding to the call for action

On Monday, city council decided to approach the province for guidelines on how to reduce liquor store hours and to prepare a resolution to present at the next convention of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association. The move followed months of consultations with community groups as well as concerns about the impacts of alcohol raised by the Saskatchewan Government Employees Union.

Advocacy groups in the city have long stressed the negative societal and criminal consequences of alcoholic consumption.

“The research in North America and across the world is just really really clear,” Robert Bratvold of the Community Alcohol Steering Committee told paNOW last month. “When you have greater access or reduced pricing there’s an increase in consumption but also an increase in alcohol-related crime, injury, addiction – all those problems that are related.”

Bratvold said he’s pleased city council is looking into limiting alcohol retail hours.

“I think this is a really challenging piece, but I admire city council moving forward on it,” he said.

Taking the right steps

However there could be potential legal red tape ahead. Laws regarding liquor consumption fall under provincial not city jurisdiction. City solicitor Mitch Holash has previously suggested that the city could face a legal challenge if it were to enact a bylaw regarding hours of operation without first getting the go-ahead from the province.

Meanwhile, Botha said municipalities need more power to control alcohol consumption in their communities.

“I believe that each municipality, dependent on their location, should have the ability to amend their bylaws and restrict the hours of operation or change the days of operation,” he said.

alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom