Bars and pubs have to shut down alcohol sales at 2 a.m. under current Alberta Gaming and Liquor laws. Patrons must be finished their drinks and out of the door at 3 a.m. Finance Minister Doug Horner states a review of the Gaming and Liquor Act is coming next year.
Two local pub managers say they find current Alberta liquor laws work fine for closing time.
Talk came about on social media and in the news about relaxing liquor laws after the province allowed establishments to open early for the Olympic gold medal hockey game between Canada and Sweden on Sunday, February 23.
“It was excellent, everybody had a great time - we had a full house,” said Yavis Restaurant and Bar manager Steve Wannstrom.
He said the current law has bars shut down sales at 2 a.m. and patrons must be finished drinking and out of the bar by 3 a.m.
He said the current closing time is fine the way it is.
“Until they ask for our opinion or bring something forward,” Wannstrom said,
Vintage Pub & Grill manager Kenny Singh said he’s discussed a later closing time with his friends and colleagues in the bar and liquor businesses.
“It doesn’t make sense bars shutting and drunk people leaving at 4 or 5 a.m. and at the same time other people are going to work.”
Singh’s said it might work in the bigger cities, but not in smaller towns where they’re closed around midnight on a weekday.
Vintage didn’t open for the 5 a.m. gold medal hockey game.
Both men agree for this special occasion relaxing the liquor laws worked, Wannstrom notes he thought it was cool and it’s still a novelty then.
In a media release on February 24, the minister responsible for the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission, Finance Minister Doug Horner, stated:
“..the AGLC is going to take time to talk to its partners - including law enforcement, licensees and municipalities - to see how this unique event went. I trust they’ll use the feedback they receive to help them make informed decisions about any similar future requests.”
Horner also states a review of the Gaming and Liquor Act is in the works for next year, and all the discussions that happened over social media on the gold medal game weekend will be taken into consideration.
Local business owner and Drumheller Chamber of Commerce President John Shoff says his personal opinion is the less regulation, the better, and business owners then can decide.
“If the bar owner wants to run it twenty-four hours, let him run it twenty-four hours. I don’t think the government should impose anything.”
Shoff said a social aspect of the issue is that if bars don’t have a closing time, it gets rid of the concern of people over-indulging at last call at 2 a.m.
He notes other parts of the world operate twenty-four hour establishments and don’t seem to have the problems that we do here.
