Kelowna City Council is demanding answers from B.C.'s Liquor Control and Licensing Branch after two venues participating in last weekend's gigantic BreakOut West music festival were forced to go dry after their liquor licences were suspended for offences that occurred six months ago.
"To wait six months and then nail them during the biggest event of the year, it's definitely suspect in my mind," said Councillor Charlie Hodge, whose motion to ask the LCLB for clarification on the suspensions was passed unanimously by council.
BreakOut West and the accompanying Western Canadian Music Awards brought more than 70 musical acts from across Western Canada to Kelowna for a four-day festival held in 12 venues.
The festival's executive director, Rick Fenton, said that about 3,500 people took in the music while local hotels were filled with hundreds of out-of-town music-industry representatives.
But at Cush and the Habitat, the two venues under suspension, patrons had to make do with soft drinks and de-alcoholized beer while taking in acts like the Grapes of Wrath and You Say Party. Despite their booze bans, the two venues were packed throughout the weekend.
Both Cush and the Habitat are restaurants that feature live entertainment. Their food-primary licences require them to ensure that patrons who drink alcohol are also eating food. Both venues were nabbed in LCLB undercover operations on April 3 for operating like a bar, rather than a restaurant.
Because it was the Habitat's second infraction, it received a 25-day licence suspension, while Cush, which had opened only two months earlier, was slapped with a 13-day suspension. Both appealed.
The Habitat received a hearing with the LCLB in mid-August, while Cush's appeal was handled through written submissions. The LCLB denied both appeals in mid-September and ordered the suspensions to begin a month later, which made them coincide with BreakOut West.
The timing was "non-negotiable," said Cush owner Crystal Wood.
"This is an infraction that happened back in April, two months after we opened our doors and now we're getting shut down during one of the biggest live entertainment festivals Kelowna has," she added. "It's all just really disheartening for us. It just feels that they're out to get us."
Ms. Wood called the penalty "extreme." She had hoped that by admitting the infraction and instituting measures to prevent a recurrence Cush would have its suspension reduced. But it was not to be.
"I just feel that there was absolutely no leniency given to us whatsoever," she said.
The Cush and Habitat suspensions are only the latest in a recent string of penalties imposed on Kelowna drinking establishments.
Long-time city councillor Andre Blanleil said a new group of liquor inspectors appears to be taking a harder stance. "It seems like they're much more aggressive than in the past."
And while Mr. Blanleil said he has no issue with the rules governing alcohol sales, he is concerned with how the liquor inspectors used their power in these two cases.
"I think there was a real lack of common sense here," he said. "It wasn't like they were allowing 14-year-old kids in the bar. … To me it's a minor infraction."
The LCLB would not make anyone available for an interview. In an e-mailed statement, it said "the timing of any suspension depends on a variety of factors including the date of the contravention, whether or not the licensee signs a waiver or requests the opportunity to attend a hearing, scheduling of the hearing, and writing the decision."
It also said that licensees are usually given four weeks notice before beginning a suspension and that the two suspensions were not purposely timed to coincide with the festival.
The statement acknowledged that there has been an increase in the number of penalties imposed on Kelowna establishments. It attributed this to increased staffing levels at the LCLB and improved co-ordination between liquor inspectors and police.
Special to The Globe and Mail