Three proponents are asking for some liquor leeway in Prince George, and some Citizen research shows the northern capital is indeed a few cans short of a flat compared to other B.C. towns.
As previously reported in The Citizen, a nightclub group led by Ted Coole already has a liquor-primary license in hand and wishes to use it at the former Cineplex Odeon building.
Also, Learn To Earn Bartending School (operators of the German Club's special events room on Third Avenue) has indicated a wish for a liquor-primary license, and Nancy O's Restaurant wants to upgrade their food-and-liquor mixed use license to a liquor-primary designation.
Nancy O's co-owner Garrett Fedorkiw was concerned by an RCMP comment in The Citizen opposing further liquor allowances in the city's downtown.
"Do we have a chance? I don't know. We are in the dark. But I think your editorial [Thursday's Citizen, Time to Grow Up, P.G. on Page 6] hit it right on the head. People are perfectly capable of drinking responsibly, and the regulations for serving liquor are so strict you have to pay attention to how you do your business."
The Nancy O's application has gone through first reading by city council, second reading is expected at the next council meeting, with third reading (the public hearing phase) scheduled for the end of the month.
A letter explaining their position is available on Nancy O's website. The maximum number of people allowable in their building is 72, including staff, entertainers and patrons.
"I do think there is a lot of room for this sort of entertainment here in the downtown. We have to make this a fun place to be, we have to stimulate activity, and we have the Canada Winter Games coming in a few years so let's get going with that now so we're ready to show Canada a good time," said Fedorkiw.
The city's Official Community Plan would seem to support that, with goals like "Create a strong, vibrant downtown... that is the focus for cultural and recreational activities...Visualize downtown as the showcase of the community." It pegged downtown as the city's "primary location... for entertainment."
The downtown has a long way to go to encroach on its former levels of drinking. There are currently 1,673 liquor-primary seats in the downtown (excluding the Royal Canadian Legion), which is 1,273 fewer than 2006 and at least 3,200 fewer than the city's boozy peak in the 1960s and '70s - a wobbly time, as described in the local history book Ginter by former Citizen reporter Jan-Udo Wenzel.
"Drinking was Prince George's favourite pastime," Wenzel wrote. "The city had the highest per capita consumption of beer in the province. Since British Columbia had the highest beer consumption of all the provinces, it stood to reason that Prince George was the beer drinking capital of the nation."
The B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch pours out much less heady numbers these days. According to their latest records, Prince George has slid off the bar stool compared to its sister cities in B.C.
Total Number of Liquor-Primary Licenses (All-Inclusive)
Kelowna - 82
Kamloops - 69
Nanaimo - 62
Prince George - 45
Total Number of Liquor-Primary Licenses (Bars Only)
Kelowna - 49
Nanaimo - 46
Kamloops - 45
Prince George - 31
Is Prince George just taking its booze home in a bottle more than other communities? Not according to B.C. Liquor Store statistics. Each of the comparison cities has three government liquor stores (private liquor retailers were not counted) and according to the combined sales of all alcohol at the government facilities (2009/10 sales totals), Prince George is still on the low side.
Kelowna - 6,258,827 litres
Kamloops - 3,975,831 litres
Prince George - 3,400,778 litres
Nanaimo - 2,848,903 litres
