P.E.I. considers updating 'outdated' liquor laws to let minors stay during entertainment

Prince Edward Island's finance minister agrees that it's time to modernize the province's liquor laws.

At the P.E.I. legislature on Wednesday, a question came up about the rules around families with young children being present in restaurants that serve liquor when live entertainment begins.  

"A local brewery was fined and a waitress lost her liquor serving privileges because the entertainment commenced before the family with a minor finished their meal," Liberal MLA Robert Henderson said to Finance Minister Jill Burridge.

"Minister, do you think that is fair, and will you change the regulations so that they're the same [as] in every other province, as we're supposed to be doing with our internal trade mechanisms?"

Burridge responded: "We are working through modernization of our Liquor Control Act, so that is something we can absolutely take back and bring into consideration when we're going through that review."

Local brewery calls for change

Though not mentioned by name in the legislature, the restaurant Henderson was describing was Lone Oak Brewing Co., with multiple locations across P.E.I. 

"There's what we would refer to as an outdated policy within the Liquor Control Commission that changes our licence as an operating restaurant whenever we have live music or trivia," Lone Oak co-owner Jared Murphy told CBC News.

"What happens is that minors are no longer allowed to be present while those events are taking place."

Murphy believes these policies were established long ago, when the assumption was that live entertainment and trivia were linked to drinking.

"We believe as operators that times have changed. A lot of local breweries now are supporting local artists. They're having live music during brunch. They're having live music in the evening as sort of background music, or, as you know, for our audience to listen to… And the same thing with trivia," he said.

"This policy… it's created a bit of friction with consumers, because they don't quite understand why a family can't come in with their children to dine if our kitchen is open, and they're accompanied by a guardian."

'An archaic practice'

Murphy added that the brewery had been fined a couple of times for having a minor present during live music or trivia events, resulting in one of their servers having their liquor serving licence revoked.

"So not only were we fined for the situation, but our server had to retake their Safe Serve licence in order to be able to work again," he said.

Penalizing restaurants and banning servers from serving alcoholic beverages because minors are present during entertainment such as live music or [trivia] is very much an archaic practice.— Janick Cormier, Restaurants Canada

Murphy also pointed out that the policy applies all day, even if a live artist is performing during brunch, say at 11 a.m. In that case, a minor is technically not allowed in the establishment.

"A change to this policy would be best for the operators, and I believe it would be best for the liquor commission as well, so they don't have to again, enforce something that just — again, doesn't make sense," he said.

Restaurants Canada, a non-profit that advocates for the food-service industry, said in a statement that it too supports the move to modernize the Island's liquor laws. 

"Penalizing restaurants and banning servers from serving alcoholic beverages because minors are present during entertainment such as live music or [trivia] is very much an archaic practice," the organization's vice-president in the Atlantic region, Janick Cormier, said in a statement to CBC News. 

"Times have changed and liquor laws and regulations on P.E.I. need to reflect the realities of today."