With the fate of the business hours bylaw restricting liquor sales in Ponoka at stake, residents are speaking out in favour of it.
Mayor Rick Bonnett said they have received three letters opposed to repealing the bylaw, although he did not read them to the gallery during a meeting March 11. Councillors received a request to repeal the business hours bylaw and not everyone agreed on how to proceed.
Coun. Tim Falkiner was clear that he is against restricting liquor sales from the moment he became a councillor. He did not feel reading a letter from a person claiming to be the medieval character Robin Hood. “If you don’t have the wherewithal to put your name, your own contact information on there, then I don’t think that we should give it the time of day.”
Falkiner wanted to repeal the bylaw that night but Coun. Carla Prediger disagreed and suggested a public meeting be set to allow feedback from residents. Falkiner challenged that suggestion.
“I think there’s been ample discussion…I think we’re just delaying the inevitable,” said Falkiner.
On the other side of the discussion was Prediger, who feels council should hear what residents have to say.
“I think we owe it to the public to at least go to a public hearing,” she said.
From the gallery, Inger Laing, vice-president of the Ponoka and District Chamber of Commerce, asked to speak in favour of the repeal. She took advantage of the new council proceedings bylaw, which allows residents to speak for two minutes. Laing referred to the chamber’s recent survey to business owners asking their thoughts on it.
“They came back in favour of rescinding this bylaw,” she offered.
The chamber received 45 votes with 35 people speaking against restricting liquor sales.
Sherry Gummow, a business owner in Ponoka, also spoke in favour of repealing the bylaw.
“AGLC (Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission) highly regulates this business. It it’s good enough for the rest of the province, I feel it’s good enough for Ponoka,” said Gummow.
She suggests there are social issues the bylaw is not addressing and questioned the impaired driving statistics provided by Ponoka RCMP. “Anybody can skew them one way or another.”
Prediger still spoke in favour of a public meeting.
“We don’t just represent the chamber, we represent the community,” she said.
Council voted 5-1 to plan a public meeting to allow residents to speak up. Coun. Mark Yaworski recused himself from the discussion and Falkiner voted against the public meeting. A date has not been set.