PiNK may reopen to regular business hours Friday following Oct. 30 inspection: general manager

What defines a nightclub?

The very answer could open up at least one establishment to its regular business hours this upcoming weekend.

The province’s ruling in October on Saskatoon’s nightclub restrictions was made amid growing COVID cases in the city’s establishments.

The province says Saskatoon’s nightclubs aren’t allowed to serve alcohol past 10 p.m., with 11 p.m. being the official closing time. But, both PiNK Lounge & Nightclub and Outlaws Country Rock Bar fall outside of the definition, according to the general manager of PiNK Entertainment.

“Our first concern pertains to the definition of “nightclub” within the new bylaw. Herein, a “nightclub” is defined as a ‘…liquor primary establishment at which the main activities are selling liquor and providing music to which patrons can dance…’’ This definition in its entirety can be applicable to any and all venues within the city of Saskatoon as every venue plays background music and sells liquor,” an email to the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) Saturday, shared with 650 CKOM reads.

“Since reopening on the 8th of June, we have been and are currently enforcing all regulations within our establishment. We believe these regulations should also be applied to all venues, not just Pink and Outlaws.”

Joe Jackson is the general manager at PiNK, and he says multiple phone calls and emails have not been answered by the SHA.

Jackson said both the SHA and Saskatoon police were at the establishment for an inspection on Oct. 30. It was noted also that PiNK’s liquor permit states that it is a ‘tavern,’ and both parties that inspected the facility on Oct. 30 said that it couldn’t be shut down if it continued to operate normal business hours.

“We want to continue working closely with the SHA. However, as both the police and the SHA agreed we did not meet the “nightclub’ criteria, we will otherwise keep our regular operating hours of 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. after this weekend (Oct. 30- Nov. 1). We are happy to oblige with a reduced hours mandate if necessary. However, we require 48 hours notice of any schedule changes to meet labour laws,” Saturday’s email claims.

Jackson added that PiNK and Outlaws are similar in operations and services, with the only difference in the size of the facilities.

“We are writing to address two things: the new bylaws are both vague in terms of who they apply to and therefore can be used to discriminate against two venues similar to other bars responsible for holding super spreader events. Namely Divas Nightclub/ Private Member’s Club and Longbranch Good Times Beverage Company,” the email reads.

“The public health order-when covered by the media- sounds as though it captures multiple venues. When the reality is, it was only sent to PiNK and Outlaws… It is imperative we ALL work together to flatten the curve and not just two bars.”

At the time of publishing, SHA has not responded to 650 CKOM’s request for comment.