Capping booze: Prince Albert will reduce hours for alcohol sales

By Susan McNeil

Prince Albert City Council will change the hours liquor stores can sell alcohol for consumption off their premises after a vote on Monday.

Anna Dinsdale, the newly hired Community Safety and Well-being co-ordinator, presented a report and recommendation on off-sales in the city saying that some changes could have a big impact.

“Changes to late-night retail hours are particularly associated with increased levels of heavy drinking and acute harms,” Dinsdale said to council, citing research conducted by the Canadian Institute of Substance Use at the University of Victoria.

The report included statistics such as the fact that 10 people die every day in Canada from harm caused by alcohol and that the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region saw more hospitalizations due to drinking at levels higher than both the province of Saskatchewan average and the national average.

Between January and October 2023, Prince Albert Police responded to 2,386 calls because of intoxication and made over 1,600 arrests.

The cost to the province is $0.71 per drink when consideration of paying for health, criminal justice measures, lost productivity, and damage like fires or to vehicles is considered. That includes the revenue from selling booze.

However, there is more to think about than just the costs as alcohol sales are a booming business.“It’s not just community or social harms that are impacted by alcohol, there are also economic considerations,” said Dinsdale.

The city reached out to local retailers for their perspective on changing the hours that alcohol can be sold and found resistance to changing evening hours from smaller businesses.

Prince Albert’s smaller retailers said that reducing the late night hours will cost them money as 40 per cent of their sales happen after 11 pm.

Larger retailers see more business during the day from people who plan their drinking while the late-night sales tend to be impulse purchases.

Some of the respondents said that some of the sales will just go to businesses outside of the city.

They also said it won’t make a difference in consumption as buyers will just go to lounges or restaurants that offer take-home service.

Some Prince Albert liquor stores open before 10:00 a.m. and at least one remains open until 3 a.m.

When La Ronge changed their hours of alcohol sales in 2018, they saw a reduction in ER visits with visits by men lowering by three per cent, women by five per cent and all genders aged 16 to 24 reduced by nine per cent.

Unintended injuries connected to drinking dropped by 13 per cent.

The changed hours in Prince Albert – which council voted unanimously in favour of – will limit sales to between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m.

The vote happened at an executive committee meeting which means it is not effective yet but will prompt staff to create a bylaw for council to vote on.

If one of our main goals is to reduce public intoxication or the crime that comes with public intoxication, I’m all for this,” said Coun. Blake Edwards.

Mayor Greg Dionne also supported it and has spoken out in the past to voice his dislike of the provincial loosening of where and when alcohol can be consumed or sold in Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan holds every negative record in Canada when it comes to alcohol, Dionne said, and that includes the highest amount of impaired driving, highest deaths and most alcohol consumed in Canada.

The impacts of the changes will be monitored for a year at which point staff will update council on what changes have been seen.