City Council seeks report from staff on future options on Liquor Licence Referrals

A tutorial from City Manager Rob Buchan
on how the provincial liquor licence process works and options
for the city to approach that process made for some of
Monday's City Council session discussion

How Prince Rupert City Council may approach the work of seeking comment on Liquor Licence Referrals will be the focus of an upcoming report from city staff, that after City Council members addressed two of three such referrals that were originally on their Agenda for Monday.

One a referral for an establishment on Third Avenue West was removed at the start of the evening, leaving two others on the night for Council's attention.

One for the new Arabisk restaurant at Seal Cove was approved, while a second for Port City Spirits, as we noted on Wednesday, was postponed to the next Council session.  

That following some expansive discussion in the public comment period at the start of the session, all of it focused on the proposed Port City Spirits Tasting Room which was seeking an amendment towards a lounge endorsement. 

The discussion from Monday featured two of the investors in the project, as well as residents who were opposed and supportive of the proposed lounge.

Such was the nature of the discussion and feedback from the public, that Council decided that an extension of the comment period was required to hear more towards the plans for the establishment on Fraser Street.

As part of the discussion on the two referrals later on in the Council session, much of the conversation centred on what the role of the city is for such things, considering it has no control over liquor licensing.

Towards that focus, City Manager Rob Buchan spoke to the General nature of the Liquor Licence Referral process and what the nature of the city's role in it is, noting that it's not a decision of council but of the province.

"First point I'd like to make is these reports are not about land use, they're not about the location that's already been decided with Council's zoning bylaw and the public process involved in determining what uses are appropriate.

This is a referral from the Province of British Columbia for Council to comment on liquor licenses.  And I guess it's referral this isn't a decision of Council. Council does not decide whether or not a liquor licence is given out the province does that'

Dr. Buchan observed how other communities in the province approach their work in the area of liquor referrals and what options are available to Prince Rupert Council. 

"Now there are options here, and in general some communities participate in the province's approval process and in fact take on expenses with time and you know staff time and advertisements and process.

Some communities will look at them one at a time and may decide to support, or may decide to oppose, or may decide to simply not comment.

And other communities may well  decide to not participate at all  and adopt through a policy resolution to simply direct staff to respond with no comment on all such applications because they are a provincial decision.

So that's something that Council can consider at this point in time, whether or not they  wish to simply let the province do their own process and consider the merits and the concerns or support that they would otherwise do in in their own process if they didn't get the municipality to take on a chunk of that process.

So I would like to have that in council's you know mind as they look at the first report, whether or not they actually want to continue entertaining discussion about responding to a referral comment in this manner"

Councillor Cunningham noted that the province could override any city recommendation but how the city had other elements of control over a venue.

In response the City Manager outlined the current process that is in place.

"Ultimatley with respect to a liquor licence that is the province's decision regardless of what the municipality says.

We have the business licence process within which licences will be given out if the applicant satisfies the conditions, which are: appropriate land use, appropriate building ...  fire inspection may be done, so there's a process that we look at to make sure that a business can operate within the regulations.

During the building permit process we would look at other things, such as parking to make sure that there is adequate parking for the bylaw"

Mayor Herb Pond reviewed some of the options for Council to consider.

"We could proceed to comment on these, or we could proceed one by one and say we will make no comment on them. And save for another day a broader policy that says we will either participate or won't participate,  or whatever.  Or if you're feeling so inclined we could do something right here, right now."

In a further follow up to the City Manager's observations, Councillor Teri Forster asked as to how the public could comment on the process should the City step outside of it. 

"Would then people in the public be able to comment to the province. Like how an average everyday citizen ... let's say somebody wanted to open a business and have a liquor licence, how would Teri the citizen know"

The City Manager could not offer guidance towards how the public could address the issue with the province and its process.

"I can't answer that particular question with certainty. It's the provinces' process, the province's decision. So if they think that public opinion is important and if we don't do it, I would presume that they would.  But I can't tell you that they do"

Some additional discussion then followed to the theme which included Councillor Forster concerns that she didn't want to see Council holding up a business proponents work towards their plans. 

Council then chose to accept the guidance of the City Manager and moved forward to address the two referrals up for review on the night and then to ask for a report back from Staff to explain more fully the nature of the provincial process and the options moving forward for Council.

The full discussion to the topic can be reviewed from the City's Video Archive, starting at the 52 minute mark.

More items of note from Monday's Council Session can be reviewed from our archive page.

A look at past Council themes is available through our Council Discussion archive.