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< JUL 30 2010 > |
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Media Clipping The Province, June 21, 2001 Business People urged to help with city festivals By Jack Keating Out-dated and restrictive drinking laws will be the next target of a business task force trying to end Vancouver's reputation as a "no-fun" city. Carole Taylor, the new chairman of the Vancouver Board of Trade, said yesterday she likes the idea of extending drinking hours and staggering them so as to avoid the usual bar-closing crush. But she challenged Vancouver business people to do whatever they could to help fund and promote community events and festivals and other cultural and sporting activities. "It absolutely doesn't matter what you decide to do, but it is critical that you do it," she told the Board of Trade's annual meeting at the Fairmont Vancouver Hotel. Concerning liquor regulations, Taylor pointed to the recent loosening of liquor laws by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. "He just passed a new law allowing pubs to be open 24 hours," she said. "Staggered hours make a lot more sense." She added that a Board of Trade task force is working with civic authorities to update liquor regulations and other rules that have "tightened up or hardened from their original purpose." Taylor noted that a "hardened" attitude at City Hall had led to the shutting down of Greek Days on West Broadway and Italian Days on Commercial Drive. Taylor's views about archaic drinking hours are clearly echoed by many young Vancouverites, including 21-year-old Sierra Birkett. "The drinking laws in Vancouver are so outdated and out of touch with the rest of the world," Birkett told The Province yesterday. "This is already 'No Fun City.' What other cities shut down the bars at 1 a.m or 2 a.m? Europe, Australia, Montreal, New York are open until at least 4 a.m." However, Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen was cool to any changes to drinking laws. "Yes, we do [object] if they're in downtown Vancouver," he said yesterday. "There's a big residential area. You don't want to have that where we have 75,000 people living downtown. That is an issue." Taylor, who recently toured the province with a business group, noted that ordinary British Columbians tended to be very mistrustful of the business community. "It really astounded me and disappointed me the extent to which there was hostility towards business," she said in a warmly-applauded speech.
Courtesy of The Province
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