The Nova Scotia government is re-examining where and how people can buy alcohol. (Rick Conrad)
You may get a wider selection of stores to buy your 2-4 in Nova Scotia.
The provincial government is looking at expanding the places where people can buy booze.
Finance Minister John Lohr said in a release Thursday that the province wants to reach out to the public and people in the industry to gauge their thoughts and concerns about making alcohol available in more stores or allowing more places where people can drink.
“Nova Scotia is taking steps to eliminate interprovincial trade barriers, and that makes this a good time to look at how alcohol is sold and consumed,” Lohr said in a release.
The province plans to commission a public opinion survey of 1,500 Nova Scotians beginning this week.
Provincial officials want to gather input from people about the types of stores where liquor is sold, locations where people can drink alcohol, and the health and safety consequences of any changes.
Lohr says the province will also be surveying more than 250 health and safety groups, store owners, municipal governments, industry and consumer groups, alcohol producers and others.
The government will seek input until June 30. It didn’t say when the results of the consultations will be released, or when the province may make a change to how and where alcohol is sold in Nova Scotia.
Kim Thorbourne-Whalen is the vice-chair of the Liverpool Championship Host Society. (Rick Conrad)
As fans rallied behind their favourite curlers in Liverpool last week, local businesses were also cheering for the post-holiday bump in sales.
Restaurants, bars and other food-based businesses in downtown Liverpool stayed open to try to capitalize on the influx of fans and curlers in town for the Canadian mixed doubles curling trials at Queens Place Emera Centre.
Some businesses traditionally close during the week between Christmas and New Year’s to give owners and staff a break after a busy holiday season.
At Main and Mersey Dining Room and Coffee Bar, co-owner Shani Beadle said the event helped perk up a slower time of year.
“I think when Christmas is winding down, it really helped bring more people into town and and lengthen the Christmas season, which is always helpful,” she said. “We had a lot of people from the curling here to lunch, for coffee, staying in our accommodation. So, everything’s helpful.”
Melanie Perron, co-owner of Hell Bay Brewing Company, said they saw more customers as soon as the curling event began on Monday.
“The week’s been great,” she said.
“We’ve definitely seen some new faces that we haven’t seen before come through the brewery and it’s just nice to see us in the bar as well at the Emera Centre, because it’s been a while since we’ve had our product for sale there directly through us. So the region has been definitely pushing local this time, which is great.
“It’s wonderful, especially this time of year because so many people are going into ‘Dry January’, so any beer sales that I can get any way is definitely a bonus for us.”
At Five Girls Baking, co-owner Leanne Arnott said they had planned to close from Dec. 25 until Jan. 2, but decided to reopen on Dec. 30.
“We were going to be closed and and get a few more days of rest and when we found out about the curling event, we thought, oh no, we better open. And we’re really glad we did.”
They baked special cookies decorated like the red and blue curling rings to celebrate. And Canadian curling legend Colleen Jones even dropped in to sample them. She had also visited the bakery in 2019 when Liverpool hosted the World Junior Curling Championships.
“I was hoping she would show up. She showed up (Friday) and I was tickled pink.”
Other businesses also stayed open or extended their hours, like Memories Cafe and Eatery and Route 3 Cellar Taproom and Grill.
Kim Thorbourne-Whalen of the local organizing committee said she believes the curling event helped inject $1.5 to $2 million in spinoff business for hotels, restaurants and bars in the Liverpool area. It’s also been a boon for the local Kiwanis Club, which provided canteen services at Queens Place for the whole week.
“The restaurants have been full, like the Cellar, Memories, they’ve had curling teams in there and curling families in there all week,” Thorbourne-Whalen said. “So it’s been felt throughout the community, not just with the hotels, it’s been all over.”
Region of Queens Mayor Scott Christian said he’d like to see more big events like the curling trials come to Liverpool.
“I think everybody’s blown away by how many people have been out for it. Main Street’s been busy. … I think that it should generate some good momentum to try to attract events like this in the future.
“I know this council has got big plans for Queens Place, doing some revitalization work and to make sure that we make best use of these facilities here. We’re looking at how can we make sure that we make use of this beautiful facility because you can see we can host top-notch events here.”
Main and Mersey’s Shani Beadle and other business owners say that bringing more events to town in the slower winter months would be a boost for businesses.
“I think that would be brilliant, because the summer is already quite busy, so having events like the Lobster Crawl, like curling, hockey, et cetera, is always really helpful.”
