Restaurateur left in the lurch after ability to sell offsale abruptly cancelled

Joshua McLean said he was shocked when he woke up last week to an email explaining his restaurant wouldn’t be able to operate as an offsale as of four days later.

McLean owns Homestead Bar A Vin, a wine bar and restaurant in Regina.

Last spring, as part of its initial round of orders and changes announced along with the state of emergency, the provincial government also changed the rules to allow licensed restaurants and taverns to sell alcohol for takeout and delivery as an offsale.

McLean said it was gracious of the government to do that.

“Being able to sell offsale kept the doors open for us,” said McLean.

But the announcement that ability would be taken away is a problem on two fronts.

McLean said four days isn’t enough time to prepare. He said he’d already taken delivery of the alcohol he planned to sell in the coming month, and that’s five times more than he would normally sell just in the restaurant.

“If I would have had a month’s notice, at least, I wouldn’t have purchased too much alcohol and had such a huge inventory,” said McLean.

He said that much alcohol will take too long to sell just in the restaurant and it ties up a lot of his business’ money. He’s not willing to put that burden on another small business by returning it to his supplier.

McLean said he knows there are other offsales that have actually bought licences and that’s how they make their living but he doesn’t feel he’s competing with them.

“We do have to purchase our alcohol from somewhere so we still have to buy it from a retail store in order to sell it, so if we sell more, they sell more and the government makes more money,” said McLean.

The second issue with the decision, McLean said, is not being able to sell alcohol to take home means that’s a whole revenue stream no longer open to restaurants at a time when they’re hurting.

“On July 11 (when COVID-related public health measures were lifted), it’s not like our bank accounts magically fill back up. We’ve lost a significant amount of money during the pandemic, and to take away an avenue for us to create some revenue to rebuild what we’ve lost, with four days’ notice, is unacceptable,” said McLean.

The SLGA said the rule change for restaurants in the pandemic reverted back to normal, along with all the other orders for restaurants, on Sunday. It’s currently reviewing whether it should allow restaurants and taverns to sell alcohol like an offsale on a permanent basis and a decision is expected soon.

An inquiry to the minister responsible was forwarded to the authority, and the SLGA didn’t explain why McLean was only given four days’ notice.

McLean is calling on the SLGA to reverse its decision on this at least until the review is over, but it is something he’d like to see stay permanently.

The Saskatchewan NDP is joining McLean’s call. Aleana Young, an NDP MLA and its economy and jobs critic, called the rule change short-sighted.

“This is a sector that has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and despite us all knowing for quite some time that restrictions were set to be lifted on Sunday, restaurants were given four days’ notice,” said Young.

“We all know that the economic consequences are far from over and this is an easy, common-sense way to, basically, not kick restaurants while they’re down and allow them to have something approaching an economic recovery.”

Young said the provincial government has extended other help for small businesses, pointing to the cap on food delivery fees that was extended through the summer. She said the government knows the recovery won’t happen overnight and that it’ll take time for things to get back to normal.

“It’s frustrating to see the inconsistency in the government’s own policies,” said Young.