What could be better on a Saturday morning trip to your local farmers’ market than bringing a six-pack of beer with you to guzzle and burp your way through the fruit and vegetable stands?
That seems to be the mindset of Premier Doug Ford as his government is looking to expand the “bring-your-own” event permits for municipally designated cultural or community outdoor public events. Such events can include farmers’ markets, art exhibits and neighbourhood festivals – you know, places that either don’t have booze or rely on special-event licensing to assist the organizing groups in raising funds that help pay for said events.
This is nonsensical to us. Ontario is not Texas. This move sets the stage for increased consumption of alcohol. And for small-town Ontario, this just encourages drinking and driving.
The ploy is yet another move by a government that can’t see past the horizon from its ivory tower in Toronto. In population-dense cities, there are plenty of alternatives to driving, thanks to mass-transit alternatives. But here, Chatham is the only community with consistent public transit, and those buses stop running regularly shortly after 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
Who polices consumption when Joe Blow brings his own booze to an event? Is every citizen supposed to take the provincial Smart Serve course and police themselves?
“I’m shorry shir, you’ve had too mush to drink. You’re cut off,” Joe Blow says to a mirror image of himself.
We don’t buy it.
But, apparently, it is being forced down our throats. According to a provincial government press release, “Municipalities will be required to pass a bylaw authorizing the use of alcohol in public, if they do not already have one in place, and establish a local process that would determine whether an event qualifies as community or cultural.”
Who benefits here? The alcohol producers and the alcoholics. Everybody in between can only hope they aren’t clipped by a drunk driver or aren’t sucker punched at a friendly gathering by someone who cannot control his or her over-indulgence in alcohol.
It seems checks and balances are being replaced by chugs and beverages.
Government, benefits with alcohol taxes ,same as putting alcohol in corner stores.