The spring and summer months are quickly upon us here in Prince George and that means the return of outdoor patios.
Last year, several restaurants put up temporary outdoor structures in response to public health orders due to the pandemic and the response was quite popular with the public.
Eoin Foley owns a pair of restaurants in the downtown core and told MyPGNow.com the temporary patio at Nancy O’s really created a buzz.
“It really made our year last year. We are so thrilled that it was easy to kind of cut through the red tape and get it done. We absolutely plan on doing that again and it really made a lot of people’s years.”
“From all aspects, we heard so many positive things even from city leadership as they were really happy with that. They said they would commit to making sure that we can continue doing this in the future. It made for a really nice community feel.”
Foley added the temporary patio at Nancy O’s was able to be installed in less than a week last year – but a lot of the conditions the city and province previously waived have now returned.
“There is a lot more red tape and a lot more work with one of the requirements being an engineered drawing which is going to be quite tough for a lot of people. A lot of these firms (engineering) who are capable of these drawings don’t really want to do small projects like this. If the average cafe or restaurant wants to get that done they will have to pay a lot more money.”
“Personally, I’m in a unique situation where a family member is an engineer. It was a lot easier and significantly cheaper for me to go through that but for most people, it’s not really going to be that easy.”
Last summer, PG City Council voted to permit the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch (LCRB) to allow “liquor primary” establishments to have temporarily expanded service areas until June 1, of this year with more guidance expected in the next few weeks.
However, according to the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, for licensees to operate their Temporary Expanded Service Area permanently past the June 1, 2022 expiry date, they must apply for a new outdoor patio permanent structural change (if their TESA is located outdoors) or a new interior service area permanent structural change (if their TESA is located indoors).
The Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch accepted new applications until the end of last October. Furthermore, as part of this process, licensees pay an application fee ranging from $330-440 – a one-time fee only.
The Ministry also issued the following statement to MyPGNow.com
- Government has heard that the June 2022 extension is too soon for some licensees and local governments to get patio policies in place and applications submitted. Work is underway to identify options to address the need for additional time for businesses and local governments.
- In June 2021, the Province announced that it would amend the Liquor Control and Licensing Regulation to enable the General Manager of the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch (LCRB) to extend existing Temporary Expanded Service Area (TESA) authorizations (i.e. patios) until June 1, 2022.
- The extension provided time for local authorities to update their patio policies, and for licensees to apply to make their TESA authorizations permanent and to prevent the risk of disruptions to business during the application process.
- All licensees with existing TESA authorizations, whose local governments did not raise concerns, were reissued authorization letters automatically extending the expiry date of their temporary authorizations – at no cost to the licensee – through to June 1, 2022.
- For licensees to operate their TESA permanently past the June 1, 2022 expiry date, they must apply for new outdoor patio permanent structural change (if their TESA is located outdoors) or a new interior service area permanent structural change (if their TESA is located indoors). The LCRB accepted new TESA applications until October 31, 2021. As part of this process, licensees pay an application fee that ranged from $330-440 – this is a one-time fee only.
- As support for some patios was only an interim measure intended to help businesses weather the pandemic, local governments and Indigenous Nations need to evaluate structures and outdoor licensed areas in terms of their community’s unique requirements and approach to outdoor dining before those temporary authorizations are made permanent by the LCRB.
However, Foley believes the whole process would run that much smoother with a little less government oversight.
“Last year, they did a great job both the city and province of cutting through that red tape and allowing us to get these up very quickly. We got ours up in less than a week from the announcement of this being a possibility and that was amazing. If the provincial and local governments don’t kind of recognize how wonderful that was I think there will be a missed opportunity for them to understand if they cut the red tape a lot more can get done.”
On Monday, Prince George Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Corrigall submitted a letter to city council on Monday, which can be found here.
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