Yellowknife (Apr 25/05) - A little known liquor regulation that gained public attention last week has several restaurant owners scratching their heads and wondering how it will affect their business.

Yellowknife's licenced restaurants have not benefitted from a slight change in a territorial liquor law that now requires minors be accompanied by any adult. The law previously said minors had to be accompanied by an adult family member.

The Liquor Licensing Board amended a long-standing rule earlier this month that bars anyone under 16 from entering a licenced restaurant without a parent. The change, announced April 15, now allows children under 16 to enter licensed restaurants with a responsible adult.

But several restaurant managers expressed surprise when they learned teenagers could not legally enter places like Boston Pizza, Ryan's Restaurant or Yellowknife Pizza without an adult.

"We have never heard about that before," said Jamie Olenick, manager of Yellowknife Pizza on Franklin Avenue.

The restaurant is just across the street from an elementary school and Olenick said dozens of children flock there everyday. He estimated nearly 25 per cent of his business comes from the unaccompanied, under-16 crowd.

"A law like that would have an effect on our business," said Olenick.

News of the regulation was also greeted with surprise by Pauline Ho, who has managed Ryan's Restaurant in downtown Yellowknife for nearly a decade.

"We do not have too many kids coming here any more, but they will sometimes come by for coffee," Ho said. "Nobody has ever said anything about that before."

Both Olenick and Ho said liquor inspectors regularly visit their restaurants, but have never mentioned the issue of unaccompanied minors.

Hefty fines could result

The Liquor Act currently prohibits selling alcohol to minors and violations could result in hefty fines, forced closures or even the revocation of a restaurant's liquor license.

Both Olenick and Ho questioned the logic behind the under-16 law and said it was unnecessary, given the other regulations.

"It seems like a grey area," Olenick said.

Ho described the law as simply "unfair." The origin of the regulation is relatively obscure and officials who spoke to News/North could not precisely describe its purpose.

Liquor Board Chair Don Kindt - who was not a member of the board when the regulation was enacted - said it may have been designed to shelter impressionable teenagers from spectacles of public drinking.

Despite the clear language of the Liquor Act, neither Ho nor Olenick can recall inspectors issuing a ticket for unaccompanied minors in a licensed restaurant - something that is a daily occurrence in the capital.

Deputy finance minister Margaret Melhorn, whose department oversees the Liquor Board, said inspectors have used their "discretion" when comes to enforcing that portion of the act.

But, Melhorn cautioned, if the department received a complaint, they would investigate. "Businesses should comply with the Liquor Act," she said Thursday.

Businesses, Kindt said, will have to get used to the law even though it has not been rigidly enforced in years. "Just because it was common practice, does not mean it was on the up-and- up," she said.

Other Canadian jurisdictions, like British Columbia, do not restrict minors from entering licensed dining rooms.

The territorial regulation could be axed when the department of Finance revises the Liquor Act sometime in the fall, Kindt said.

"It is a living document," Kindt said. "That is a prime example of something that could be addressed during the revision."