Town says no to province's Bring Your Own Alcohol proposal

Amherstburg council voted last week on Ontario's Bring Your Own Alcohol Event permits.

Town council has unanimously opposed being a part of the Ontario government’s potential expansion of Bring Your Alcohol Event permits.

Instead, council supported an administrative recommendation to “update the town’s Municipal Alcohol Management Policy with any industry best practices and to provide that only events making use of a Special Occasion Permit (SOP) provided by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) are permitted.”

Representatives of the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) were on hand to answer questions, but town council did not pose any questions of them. Mayor Michael Prue said WECHU also was opposed to the Bring Your Own Alcohol proposal, with Prue being on the WECHU board.

“We don’t think the recommendations being made by the province hold any weight for our community or any of the communities in Windsor-Essex,” said Prue. “We think it’s wrong.”

Councillor Peter Courtney said the province has “opened the windows and doors to alcohol accessibility already,” and brought up the “Buck A Beer” promise.

“Let’s get real here. If we’re attending an event and someone wants to bring an adult beverage, they are going to do it anyway,” said Courtney. “They are going to do it discretely, they’re going to it responsibly. It happens. We know it happens. To open it up and say ‘bring your own cooler of booze’ and all that stuff. It’s a moot point.”

Courtney said there are a lot of family functions and “alcohol does change the vibe.” He said there are other options, such as convenience stores that sell alcohol.

“For our town events, there’s no need for it,” he said. 

Companies pay money for Special Occasion Permits, he added, and they are paying a fee already.

“If you want a cold beverage, there’s options still available at a lot of events and amenities nearby,” said Courtney.

Councillor Molly Allaire said alcohol abuse “is on the rise” and said the town has to put safety first.

“This would just aggravate a lot,” she said. 

Allaire said local businesses contacted her and likely so other council members as well with the businesses saying “this would just kill them.”

“To be honest, this is the best way to do it,” she said of the staff recommendation.

Councillor Don McArthur said he also supported the staff recommendation.

“If it’s not broke, let’s not fix it,” he said. McArthur said it’s a safety issue but also an economic development issue.

Restaurants and bars create jobs for young people and the owners pay taxes to the town, he pointed out.

“This council has invested a lot of money into tourism. Not everyone agrees with it, but we’ve done so. Part of the reason we’ve done that is to drive people downtown into the restaurants and businesses downtown. They are job creators and they contribute to the tax base,” said McArthur.

McArthur also acknowledged a number of e-mails received from businesses.

“I don’t think we need to have a BYOB system in our parks or anywhere in this town,” said Deputy Mayor Chris Gibb. “We have responsible businesses that monitor people’s consumption. I don’t want to see people being able to do whatever they want in our parks or public spaces. It’s a safety issue, it’s a drinking and driving issue, it’s a families issue. No, we’re respectfully going to pass on the province’s offer.”Councillor Linden Crain also supported the administrative recommendation instead of the provincial initiative. He called it “unnecessary” and that he didn’t understand the purpose. 

“I believe it’s a massive liability risk for the town and the taxpayers ultimately,” said Crain.

Councillor Diane Pouget said she was in favour of the motion to support the administrative recommendation and that she agreed with fellow councillors.

Prue said it would be “irresponsible to the people of this town” to do anything else but support the recommendation from administration.

“The people have elected us to do many things but one of them is to have a safe town,” said Prue. “We try to do everything in road safety, we try to make sure the kids are safe, we have to make sure that everyone in town is safe from people opening up the trunk and partying in the street.”

Town says no to province's Bring Your Own Alcohol proposal

By Ron Giofu