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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife bar and restaurant owners aired grievances about liquor regulation enforcement during a meeting Monday with MLAs, territorial government officials and the Chamber of Commerce at Northern United Place.

"There's a big communication gap," Harvey Bourgeois, co-owner of Sam's Monkey Tree Pub said after the meeting.

The meeting was called after several business operators brought concerns about the way the liquor act is being enforced to the attention of Robert Hawkins, MLA for Yellowknife Centre.

"The industry has a number of concerns on process and their experiences in working with liquor (enforcement), and this is their chance to articulate some of those concerns," Hawkins said.

Owners of licensed premises said there is a lack of dialogue between them and the enforcement sector.

"My goals with today's meeting really had more to do with building a relationship and communication, and I think we achieved that objective," said Hawkins. "It doesn't mean that everyone has to agree."

Liquor sellers and regulators don't seem to agree on the way the liquor act is being enforced.

Tim Doyle, executive director of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, who had a representative at the meeting, said that Sam's Monkey Tree is one business that has been hardest hit by enforcement of liquor regulations.

Most recently, the pub had its licence suspended for nine days and fined $5,000 for an incident related to an intoxicated person on the premises. The pub re-opened Monday.

"It's very stressful," Bourgeois said about being shut down. "I have 45 employees who have part-time and full-time work."

Bourgeois said he hopes this meeting will spawn follow-up meetings and allow all players to communicate better with one another.

"I think that we've got a long process in front of us," he said. "We talked about forming a hospitality association so we can communicate a lot better with the board and the ministry."

The Chamber of Commerce is helping to form a hospitality committee made up of representatives from the bar, hotel and restaurant industry, said Doyle.

"Then we'll take it to the next level, which is creating policy and working with the regulators to make life easier for everyone," he said.

Enforcement co-ordinator James Forsey and Mike Aumond, the deputy minister of Finance, the government department that oversees liquor licensing and enforcement, were also at the meeting as were Yellowknife MLAs Wendy Bisaro and Daryl Dolynny.

"I hope the relationship between the liquor licensing and enforcement branch and the owners here in Yellowknife will improve over time," Aumond said. "We expressed a desire to try and hold such meetings on a more regular basis with them."

Doyle considered the meeting to be fruitful. "We're just happy that they're willing to sit down and have these meetings and discuss it. Because otherwise, you're going to see some folks who are going to close their doors and that's the end of it. Then what are you going to do on a Friday or Saturday night when you want to go for some wings and a couple of beers or something?"

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