Capping booze: Prince Albert will reduce hours for alcohol sales

By Susan McNeil

Prince Albert City Council will change the hours liquor stores can sell alcohol for consumption off their premises after a vote on Monday.

Anna Dinsdale, the newly hired Community Safety and Well-being co-ordinator, presented a report and recommendation on off-sales in the city saying that some changes could have a big impact.

“Changes to late-night retail hours are particularly associated with increased levels of heavy drinking and acute harms,” Dinsdale said to council, citing research conducted by the Canadian Institute of Substance Use at the University of Victoria.

Larger retailers see more business during the day from people who plan their drinking while the late-night sales tend to be impulse purchases.

Some of the respondents said that some of the sales will just go to businesses outside of the city.

They also said it won’t make a difference in consumption as buyers will just go to lounges or restaurants that offer take-home service.

Some Prince Albert liquor stores open before 10:00 a.m. and at least one remains open until 3 a.m.

When La Ronge changed their hours of alcohol sales in 2018, they saw a reduction in ER visits with visits by men lowering by three per cent, women by five per cent and all genders aged 16 to 24 reduced by nine per cent.

Unintended injuries connected to drinking dropped by 13 per cent.

The changed hours in Prince Albert – which council voted unanimously in favour of – will limit sales to between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m.

The vote happened at an executive committee meeting which means it is not effective yet but will prompt staff to create a bylaw for council to vote on.

If one of our main goals is to reduce public intoxication or the crime that comes with public intoxication, I’m all for this,” said Coun. Blake Edwards.

Mayor Greg Dionne also supported it and has spoken out in the past to voice his dislike of the provincial loosening of where and when alcohol can be consumed or sold in Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan holds every negative record in Canada when it comes to alcohol, Dionne said, and that includes the highest amount of impaired driving, highest deaths and most alcohol consumed in Canada.

The impacts of the changes will be monitored for a year at which point staff will update council on what changes have been seen.