Vancouver looking at relaxing liquor rules, opening up more bars

You could soon see bars right next door to each other in the City of Vancouver.

On Wednesday, city council is set to discuss relaxing liquor regulations, which staff say will bring “more vibrancy” to the city.

The report from staff to the Standing Committee on City Finance and Services recommends removing the moratorium on net new liquor establishments and seat expansions in the Granville Entertainment District (GED)

The report also suggests updating the city’s bylaws would make it easier for people who want to open up a bar do exactly that.

“It’s really about modernizing the city of Vancouver’s liquor regulations and hospitality guidelines,” Vancouver City Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung said.

“Changes are being looked at for really simple reasons, which are to work towards a more vibrant Vancouver and to make it more fun and to just make it easer for small business in the city without having these additional layers of regulation that are made in Vancouver only.”

Among other things, the report points out that the rules in Vancouver are much more restrictive than elsewhere in Metro Vancouver.

It also suggests that council approve amendments to licencing bylaws to expand the definition of a liquor establishment to “enable more types of non-traditional liquor serving businesses to apply for provincial liquor licences.”

Jeff Guignard, executive director of the Alliance of Beverage Licensees BC, says 50 per cent of the hospitality industry is either losing money or barely breaking even, and these types of changes will help businesses get to pre-pandemic levels.

“When you walk down Granville Street on a Friday, Saturday night, you probably see the streets are filled with people, because we have no where to put them inside, we don’t have enough capacity in the hospitality industry,” he said.

“When you put handcuffs on an industry and say, ‘You can’t have extra seats, you can’t have bars clustering together,’ or strange rules like that, they end up hurting us.”

The latest debate comes after the city changed its bylaws in October to allow some stores to sell wine.

Grocery stores bigger than 10,000 square feet, that have both a provincial wine store licence and a city business licence, “may sell wine on shelves provided they meet all provincial requirements.”

Mayor Ken Sim at the time said the city is excited to bring Vancouver in line with its neighbouring municipalities, adding it will “enhance” shopping experiences.

However, as noted in the staff report to council, changing city bylaws “can affect public health and public safety.”

“Vancouver Coastal Health strongly opposes enabling greater density of Liquor Establishments because of immediate and long-term public health and safety risks,” staff explained.

Staff also consulted with the Vancouver Police Department, who shared that while it does not necessarily oppose the removal of a moratorium on “net new establishments, the VPD does have concerns when it comes to seat increases in the GED.”

“Our experience has shown that we need to proceed with caution when increasing the availability and access to alcohol in entertainment areas and where large crowds congregate,” the VPD said.

“Vancouver is an entertainment focal point for Metro Vancouver and people from all parts of the region are drawn particularly to the GED. This requires the VPD to increase resources devoted to crowd management and public safety. This was observed when hours were extended for liquor primary establishments and policing activities were increased as a direct result.”