Manitoba liquor legislation changing

WINNIPEG—The Manitoba provincial government is now considering changes to the Liquor Control Act aimed at modernizing outdated regulations and reducing violence in licensed premises.

Among other things, the amendments proposed by the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission would:

o  Allow the MLCC to check out safety risks at a licensed operation and quickly close it or prohibit the sale of liquor after a serious incident occurs. Under the current law, licensees charged with breeches of the Liquor Control Act are brought before the licensing board to decide what action should be taken, and the licensees have the right to have an appeal heard a minimum of 30 days after the date of the incident.

o  Allow the licensing board or the MLCC board of commissioners to impose fines of up to $20,000 for breaches of the Act. This would provide an alternative to suspending a liquor licence for a period of time or imposing conditions on a licence, and thus avoid penalizing staff or customers as would a licence suspension or restriction.

o  Require establishments applying for a liquor licence to include their maximum hours of service on public notices they are now required to post advising the public of their application for a licence. The idea here is that the public would be better informed about the possible impact of the new licensed premise on their community.

Most of the proposed new regulations are the MLCC’s response to 13 recommendations from a committee appointed to look into the problem of violence in Winnipeg bars after four people were shot and one man stabbed to death last year at a now defunct downtown establishment, the Empire Cabaret. The MLCC has already addressed safety concerns with new regulations:

o  A licensee has to let the MLCC know who is the primary manager of the licensed premise and to conduct a criminal record check on the individual.

o  Applicants for cocktail lounge, beverage room, cabaret or spectator activities licences must submit a security plan with the application.

The MLCC is also proposing a change to the law that limits liquor service to one drink at a time to a patron. The new rule would allow a person to buy two drinks at a time, up to a maximum volume of 750 ml of beer, three ounces of liquor or 500 ml of wine.