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Last call boost for bars

Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 06/05) - Yellowknife bar owners welcomed a decision last week that could extend liquor hours and help the flagging industry recoup revenues they believe were lost to the city-wide smoking ban.

But some downtown residents wondered whether the changes will make noise problems in the city centre - especially along 50th Avenue - even worse.

The Liquor Licensing Board agreed Friday to extend closing time until 2:30, giving bars an extra fifteen minutes to serve alcohol.

The board, which regulates drinking in bars and restaurants, also proposed to fix last call at 2 a.m.

The move was designed to relieve congestion in the downtown core - a common problem when bar owners say they are forced kick patrons out at once.

With a staggered exit, they hope there will less congestion, less competition for taxicabs and less fighting on the streets.

"I love it. I think it is a great idea," said Dan Ireland, manager of the White Fox on Franklin Avenue.

"It gives you more time to move people outside. Sometimes that can be hard because there are hardcore (people) who want to keep going."

While the move was applauded by bar owners, some downtown residents wondered whether they would ever get a good night sleep on the weekend.

"Ideally there would be an earlier last call," said Yvonne Barbour, president Condo Corporation Number Nine. The group represents about 100 condo owners above the Centre Square Mall in downtown Yellowknife.

Barbour said residents, especially those on the 50th Street side of the complex, which is home to three bars, often awake at night to the hollering of drunken revellers.

No big deal?

But she wondered whether even an earlier close would make a major difference to noise levels. "I don't think there is an ideal solution out there," she said Monday.

Don Kindt, head of the Liquor Licensing Board, said the decision to extend bar hours was made after consulting with bar owners and residents.

He echoed the sentiments of Ireland and hoped the revamped rules - which could take anywhere from three to six months to come into effect - would lead to fewer problems in the downtown core.

"Under the current scenario, (bar goers) are forced to gulp down their liquor and leave," Kindt said.

"This will give patrons and licensees more time," he said.

During a meeting in Yellowknife last week, the board also decided expunge a law that barred unaccompanied minors from ordering food in licensed restaurants.

The rarely-enforced rule shocked many teenagers and restaurant managers when it became public earlier this spring because it effectively barred groups of teens from entering places like Boston Pizza or Yellowknife Pizza.

Kindt said the Northwest Territories was the only jurisdiction in the country that barred minors from places like that, something that would in all likelihood change within the next several months.