To best position us as we go into 2021, an amendment to provincial health officer (PHO) orders has been put in place to reduce the hours that alcohol may be sold or served on New Year’s Eve. The selling and serving of alcohol must cease between 8 p.m. (Pacific time) on Dec. 31, 2020, and 9 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2021. As before, liquor sales for onsite consumption must cease at 10 p.m. on all other dates.
“This order applies to any establishment that sells or serves alcohol, including bars, restaurants, pubs, liquor stores or grocery stores.
“Unless a full meal service is provided, premises that are licensed to serve liquor must close between 9 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2020, and 9 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2021.
“We know alcohol can impair people’s judgment and their ability to effectively use the layers of protection required to keep all of us safe. This order, while temporary, will ensure New Year’s Eve leads to a safe new year for everyone.
“We recognize this order creates an added strain on our already challenged restaurant and food services sector that has been working hard to ensure restaurants are safe. However, this is the time to do all we can to keep our wall strong. We remain confident that having a meal with your household contacts in a restaurant in B.C. is safe, and we encourage people to continue to visit their local restaurants to eat in or take away on New Year’s Eve.
Adrian Dix
Dr. Bonnie Henry
Bill Eggert says
If this is the case, and they waited, then they shouldn’t be in a decision making capacity. They have been consulted extensively on the impact a change in policy would be. They had plenty of time to do this weeks before New Years.
Now with the revelations about politicians abroad it adds just one more nail in the coffin of public trust.
Yes, we are lucky to live in Canada. That doesn’t mean we have to accept incompetence at the highest level, but alas, a week in politics is a lifetime (no pun intended), so I fear by the next election all will be forgotten, and the one who best spends our money to get elected will win.
Tim Nehring says
All of this from Bonnie’s decrees to the politicians thumbing their own rules and regs by going on holidays out of Canada points to an underlying perception by anyone that questions that just maybe this pandemic of biblical proportions, isn’t. The politicians should by job description know more than the guy on the street about the dangers and consequence of not taking Covid seriously, so the fact they don’t and the fact they change battle plans constantly and inconsistently speaks volumes to how seriously the tax paying public should take it.
I for one have a hard time swallowing anything as gospel that our elected and unelected officials try to force feed as truth…none of this adds up, I can start listing the inconsistencies from the Feds all the way down to the local pub and everything in between but that would take up more room than this page will ever allow.
Happy New Year.
Publisher: I like an earlier comment about the pancake having two sides. It also has an edge that is circular.
We are less than two weeks into winter and the sun was shining from the south quite early- the days are getting longer.
I just want to break the back on the stats before spring – vaccinations, 3/4 time, some breaks from the grind. The analysis of the pandemic will be most interesting. Hopefully Trump won’t start a war before Sleepy Joe gets his white office.
Debt is most concerning as I listened to the pundits on CBC – after WW2 the economy grew 5 percent a year for a decade. It is predicted we will have a growth factor of 1 percent a year with government spending double that to stimulate the GDP. I have enough soup for a year in the cave – hope that will tide me over.
Al Hudec says
Everything else was already in place-limited occupancy, limiting tables to six persons living together, 10 PM close. Everyone in the industry has ‘serving it right’ training and accreditation from the government and trained to not over serve and on how to deal with rowdy groups. The only real gap was the inconsistently of allowing the liquor stores to stay open till 11. Crowding patrons into even more limited serving hours and then sending them out onto the street or into parties in private homes is not the way to eliminate rowdy crowds. There are more safety precautions and more training and greater ability to manage drunkenness within restaurants where the air quality is much better than the average home.
Publisher: In some form of counter balance – the order was basically for Metro Vancouver or large cities with lots of bars.
In Oliver, the carpet was rolled up at 6pm at the BC Liquor Store according to the ladies that work there. Nothing to do with the order. How the order affected restaurants in SO is unclear but most peeps that I know are asleep by 9pm.
Al you are as bad!!! as me – doing your creative thinking at 4 am which proves my point.
Pat Whalley says
While I would not normally join in with a party in a pub or restaurant, I think
changing things at the last moment was a huge mistake.
Our service industries are hanging on by a whisker and were all prepared for bringing in the New Year with the Times Square ball drop. This change of plans will hit the industry extremely hard when they have all brought in staff and supplies for the event.
While I respect the decision to go with an earlier cut off time, this announcement could have been made several days earlier. Cutting off the serving of alcohol early will just have people collecting in private homes instead, which is what Dr Bonnie tells us not to do. A poor decision.
Free Steele says
Unfortunately people will get together New Years Eve. And they will drink. I know the order is well meaning but not part of reality. Some started drinking last spring and that hasn’t ended the problem either. I am for enforcing the rules but they have to be practical. If they cut off booze sales bootleg will be the beneficiary
Jack dean says
It’s clear that when you have people how believe their rights and freedoms out way the health and safety of others we have a problem.
Do you really need to drink and party that bad? If so you might have a problem! It’s this type of mind set that results in outbreaks like the one at McKinney!
None of us have enjoyed the restriction of 2020 but some of us are willing to give up a drink or a party to save a life.
Happy New Year! Where’s the Tylenol!
Al Hudec says
Well this makes sense-NOT.
Interesting to see the preconceptions of the PHO crowd. Do people who drink at 9 PM on New Year’s eve necessarily drink less responsibly then people who drink at 9 PM on any other night in the year? Do the folks that book a 6 PM seating for New Year’s eve necessarily behave any more responsibly then folks that book the 9 PM seating? Where do people go to drink after 8 PM?They leave a restaurant or bar that has all of the mandated protections and probably high ambient air quality to go home and drink in a private residence where there are no such protections and where the air circulation is almost invariably poorer more conducive to the transmission of viruses then in a commercial restaurant. Oh sure, and why not double up on the financial injury to restaurants by telling them at the last moment that the second sitting is cancelled and that all of the food that they stock for the occasion will now go to waste. Oh and by the way with vaccinations critical to stopping the virus couldn’t a few of the PHO types have worked over the holidays rather than effectively shutting down the vaccination program during the holiday season? If the decisions are all about science, what was the scientific rationale for putting the vaccination program in vacation mode over the holidays?
Publisher: Not a big sacrifice really Al – but thinking minds might have said it on Monday or Tuesday and gave some notice. Ok one for you Al – is it necessary to babble on almost each week day on the CBC for ever case, death, long term care facility, ski hill, vaccination, surge, wave or cluster?
It baffles my mind that – that many people have nothing better to do than inform – or is that scare – the public. When it starts each day on TV I move to PBS or TCM and watch commercial free TV. I wait for a written update, look at a Canada map – and it takes 5 mins to digest. Stay at home.
To all – one and all have a festive new year – see ya on the other side.
Bill Eggert says
The restaurant business has been consulting on an ongoing basis with the PHO. This edict came out of no where with no consultation. Food and beverages have been bought and paid for. It is a disaster for restaurants who are hanging on by their thumbnails. It is absolutely unacceptable for Dix and Henry to do this at the last moment, unless of course they can show some change in the last week.
This will only erode the confidence that the public has in Dr. Henry. I for one am changing my opinion of her. Is she really following science?
Remember, this is not about whether Covid is dangerous. This is about a change in policy without any evidence of change in situation.