Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Jill Sperling

New Year's Eve

Businesses forced to change plans amid New Year’s Eve liquor sales restrictions

Dec 31, 2020 | 3:27 PM

KAMLOOPS — People will be ringing in the new year a bit more quietly this year.

B.C. residents have been urged not to gather in large groups this evening, but to celebrate the new year within household bubbles.

In an effort to restrict the transmission of COVID-19 this evening (Dec. 31), Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has issued a ban on the sale of alcohol beginning at 8 p.m. The latest order has caused a stir among those who sell and serve alcohol.

“I’ve been a huge supporter of hers until this announcement,” said Sahali Liquor Store and Fox’n Hounds Pub owner Al Deacon, “not because I’m in the business, I just think it was irresponsible for her to just do this so last minute.”

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On Wednesday afternoon, Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix held an impromptu teleconference to announce a temporary ban on the sale of alcohol.

“Liquor sales for on-site and off-site consumption must cease between 8 p.m. on December 31st and 9 a.m. on January 1st, 2021,” Henry said.

The order applies to all restaurants, bars, pubs and stores.

Deacon says the Fox’n Hounds Pub will not be affected, but the Sahali Liquor store will be closing early due to the order.

“Here we open until 11 and we’re fairly busy until 11:00. Her shutting sales down at 8 isn’t irresponsible for us, but it’s certainly irresponsible for the restaurants and others in the hospitality business who have made special menus, convinced staff to work and now they’re just left out in the cold.”

With liquor sales ending at 8, Duffy’s Neighbourhood Pub has reworked its New Year’s Eve schedule.

“So we just bumped everything back like an hour,” said Pub Manager Stacey Crellin. “Now we’ll do our free champagne at 7 instead of 9 – two hours I guess – I mean, we just had to work with it. Now we’ll have to do our prime rib dinner a little earlier, but it’s all first come first serve. Who knows what it’s going to be like?”

Restaurants had already been facing restrictions on the sale of alcohol, with establishments no longer allowed to serve alcohol past 10 p.m. as of early September. In addition, seating is limited. The latest order has brought the year to a close on a bit of a sour note.

“In the pub we’re down 80 per cent in sales compared to last year right now,” Deacon said. “Restaurants are faced with the same thing with the decrease in seating. It’s just this last minute call by Bonnie Henry, I think she’s going to have some public outcry.”

While the order wasn’t expected, some restaurants have simply adapted to the unpredictability of 2020.

“It’s not affecting what we had planned because it was hard to really plan anything anyways,” Crellin said. “Normally we have a seated dinner and a three-course meal going on on New Year’s Eve and we have reservations and we decorate, but this year it’s just super mellow, we’re not doing anything of the sort. So it really didn’t make that big of a difference to us.”