Liquor Licensing in NS - A letter to the people who run it.

Dear Person in Charge,

I am writing you to try to understand why old, poorly conceived and sometimes harmful and meaningless rules continue to be enforced upon the citizens of Nova Scotia. I am told you might know.

I am not financially associated with any licensed establishment in Nova Scotia, although I am a customer of many, and an advocate for responsible drinking in the Region. I am just an Environmental Engineer, but I daily have to deal with inexperienced, untrained young people interpreting legislation and regulations that were never, ever intended to apply to current environmental realities, and modern construction practices.

Unfortunately, I keep hearing of parallel silliness occurring in the administration and enforcement of the liquor license laws in our Province. 

I see blatant misleading of the media and the public, in spin-doctored press releases, and filtered communications by talking heads (some of whom I know personally) who upon leaving work, take themselves, apologetically but directly, to the same establishments their departments seem to be bent on putting out of business. Indeed, that may be one reason for some of the overdrinking in Nova Scotia - the collective guilt of civil servants being made to enforce laws and regulations they know to be childish, trivial, of no value, and in often hateful circumstances.

I am going to tell you something that is, apparently, a secret to your Department. When bad laws exist, and government still tries to enforce them, at first the public may try to obey, but soon enough, the moral authority of a government to govern dissolves, and you become irrelevant. That is what is happening now in Nova Scotia with alcohol service and consumption. The rules are just so silly, and irrelevant to modern living, that people are starting to ignore them. Everyone knows you can only afford to hire so many inspectors, and pay so much overtime. I believe that there are more speakeasies in Nova Scotia now than at any time in history, and far more breweries and wineries that are not licensed than licensed. And that is not because it is fun, but because the rules around them are silly, permits are expensive with no commensurate value, and most of the admin is so irrelevant it's easy to justify ignoring.

Here are some past examples of what I view as utter stupidity, and a blatant misdirection of my tax dollars.

EDNA restaurant opens, well, not really, they have a soft opening for only those people who invested in the restaurant. You can't just walk in and be served. But who shows up? Two of your inspectors. I guess they wanted to be hip and tell their friends they were there on opening night. Now put this in perspective - a new business, a restaurant, trying to show off to their investors that the investments were well placed, and that they could be trusted. Pretty stressful. But in comes the long blunt stupid arm of government to try to really ruin their day. If these were my employees, I would suspend them. If I ordered them to do this, I'd suspend myself.  You are annoying your clients, the public.

Obladee Wne Bar - if there is one place in Atlantic Canada you WANT people to bring their kids into so they can learn by example of how to drink without being an idiot, this is it. A place where wine, food, and responsible use of alcohol are primary. Here, the owner is not even allowed to bring her infant daughter in during open hours, let alone witness a healthy family experience happening with teenagers and parents or guardians enjoying wine responsibly. The reason? The very substantial, and common supper many patrons have there, a cheese, bread and charcuterie board (at $17) is not deemed to constitute a "meal" by, well, by who? Someone with no brain, that is clear. The total inanity of this is further illustrated by the fact that, at the time this license restriction was enforced, the bar across the street, Pogue Fado, perhaps the last place you'd want anyone to take their kids (strip joints offer better examples of public behaviour) allowed kids in with a $3 side of fries. A fine example of the promotion of healthy living? Well, no, it's a horrid example of how to encourage responsible drinking in NS. It is also a prime example of how a rule that really should not apply is applied in a such a manner as to twist its effect to encourage exactly the sort of thing it was intended to stop. For the same reason, a (poor) judgement call about what constitutes a full meal, this same bar cannot serve a single malt scotch. This, by the way, makes us look like backwards god fearing hypocrites to any tourists and visitors. They aren't laughing with us, they are laughing at us, and frankly, it's embarrassing. You are embarrassing your clients, the public.

Growler sales - perhaps the ultimate in hypocrisy and abominable policy writing. There were bars (Paddy's Pub in Kentville for one) who had to sell the beer to you at a back door, then make you walk all the way around, outside the building, to the front door and then go into the bar to pay for it. Others, like The Rock Bottom, ended up not being allowed to sell on the same day (??) making you call in an order the day before and pick it up overnight. Who wrote this? Some Baptist Minister who came back from Hell? I understand it has since been altered a bit, but the vary fact that someone was allowed to create such tripe in the first place is evidence in and of itself that someone does not know what they are doing, and should be given a job in some department where a grasp on reality is not required - HR perhaps? why not do what old conservative Alberta does, and just let bars sell beer how they choose to. You are being overbearing without reason to your clients, the public.

Even more recently, inspectors are out harassing (that's the only word for it) a young couple who have just gone out on a huge financial limb and started a new business, employing people in our tough times. They are being told they have to change all their business hours (and therefore printed media and websites and anything with their hours on it) because they have to open earlier in the day when there are no customers, to achieve some arbitrary set time so they can stay open until when their customers will actually be there. How stupid and intrusive is this rule when applied to a cosy little 35 seat family owned pub? If they want to open from 3 am to 7 am, I say good luck with that, I'll let them fail for their own reasons, not have my civil servants run them out of business for no reason. But really? What purpose could this silly rule ever serve in this context? You are harassing your clients, the public.

In any of these examples above, do you actually think the general public, your client, would support these draconian applications and interpretations of the laws you are charged with administering? Really? I cannot imagine a rational defence for any of those enforcement activities. You are wasting our money, that tax revenue we give you in trust to use for us, not against us.

Our food and beverage industry employs a lot of people, and generates over $700 million annually to our economy from the booze side alone. Most people would agree it requires some regulation and enforcement at times, but perhaps it is time we looked at our current approach and came up with something that actually encourages responsible drinking, common sense business practices, and a bit more of the "no harm, no foul" attitude that most Nova Scotians live the rest of their lives by. Unless you do, more people will ignore you to the end-game of redundancy.

This is about context and judgement, and it is, at its base, about our attitude here in NS. We have evolved a Culture of No in our regulatory environments, one where people who have some authority abuse it simply by starting at NO, and having to be convinced to get to OK. This is backwards. It should be all about getting to YES, helping people comply with regulations when they make sense to be applied, and having the means (a notwithstanding clause or easy ministerial exemption) to support new and better ways to serve the public in the hospitality business. Including alcohol related access and service.

We finally got rid of the publicly (politically) appointed liquor licensing board - I often wondered when they might all reach a common level of redundancy - now let's see some inkling of common sense returning to this world. Why is a liquor license for a building even still a Provincial role?That's a land use decision and should already be covered under the MGA.

Hey now, there's a novel cost savings idea - download something on the Municipalities they might actually want!