New bar rules limit drink orders, prices

Starting August 1, happy hours may not be as happy as new Alberta bar laws mean minimum drink prices are going up and maximum drink orders are going down.

The minimum price for spirits and liqueurs will be $2.75 per oz., wine will be $1.75 per 5 oz. glass, draught beer will be $3.20 per 20 oz. pint and beer, cider or coolers will be $2.75 per 12 oz. bottle or can. Establishments may reduce menu prices during happy hour, but drink prices cannot go below these minimums at any time.

Also, patrons are limited to ordering and possessing no more than two standard drinks after 1 a.m., and happy hours may last no later than 8 p.m.

Wes Bellmore, communications officer for Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission, said the new rules are intended to reduce over-consumption and resulting issues.

“It’s not so much a problem with licensees, it’s people who can’t set their own drinking limits,” he said. “There’s been an increasing sensitivity about violence in and around bars.”

Bellmore said concerns from the public and hospitality industry employees led to talks between the solicitor general, municipalities and liquor industry groups and a series of consultations which resulted in the new rules.

“The amendments to service regulations are a tool that bar staff can use and many are expressing satisfaction,” he said. “When a patron wants to order a table full of beer at last call, now the staff can say ‘Sorry, it’s not legal to do that’.”

Soto Korogonas, owner of Pete’s Nightclub, said he hadn’t heard of the new rules, but added, “an initiative to try and limit over-consumption in any way possible is a good thing.”

Bar owners will receive letters informing them of the changes, Bellmore said, and the updates will appear in the licensee handbook as well as online.

Rico Damota, manager of D’ed Dog Pub, said not only do the D’ed Dog’s prices already meet the minimums set out in the new rules, but that it has always tried to slow things down at the end of the night.

“We shut down at one o’clock, and we seem to avoid a lot of problems,” Damota said. There’s no simple resolution to public intoxication and rowdiness, he said, but the updated rules may prove useful.

“I hope that with these new prices and regulations, on top of what the community’s trying to start up, we can maybe work together to create a better environment for young people,” he added.

D’ed Dog patron Daphne MacLeod was socializing there Sunday evening and said she didn’t think the changes would have much of an effect.

“The whole charging us more for alcohol isn’t going to do anything,” she said. “People aren’t going to drink less because when you’re out for a few drinks, it’s not like you care how much you’re paying.”

“It still sucks though,” added her friend, Ashley Naaktgeboren. The two said they think the problem with raising drink prices is that it causes people to be less inclined to tip, so bartenders end up losing out.

Atha-B Nightclub patron Rob Fergusen said the rules are put in place because some people ruin it for everyone else.

“Unfortunately people can’t take responsibility for themselves so the government has to take responsibility for them,” he said.

Alberta is joining Manitoba and Prince Edward Island as the only provinces to have both minimum drink prices and maximum drink orders at the end of the night.

Saskatchewan, Ontario, and New Brunswick have minimum drink prices only and British Columbia, Northwest Territories and Nunavut have rules about maximum drink orders.

“As part of the research, when they were writing the report, looked at best practices from other regions, looked at what’s happening,” Bellmore said, adding that Alberta’s minimum drink prices are comparable to or slightly higher than other provinces with the rules.