Community members weigh in on BYOB plan

Meuse Brewing Company is a popular alcohol vendor at local events.

Leah Bauer

Advocate Contributor

Since the Ford government took office in 2018, the Conservatives have made many moves to loosen restrictions on alcohol consumption and purchase in Ontario.

In his 2018 campaign, Doug Ford promised to bring Ontarians ‘Buck-A-Beer’, though sadly, this campaign promise never came to fruition. Ford’s unachieved dream of dollar beers for the people of Ontario did not deter him from continuing to focus on alcohol-related policies at Queen’s Park. His latest alcohol related move has been to change legislation to now allow local events to apply for a BYOB permit.

Starting April 30th, event organizers of community and cultural events will be allowed to apply for “Bring your Own” permits. These permits will allow attendees to bring and consume their own alcohol in designated areas of the events.

Local community members have demonstrated mixed reactions to this announcement. Estelle van Kleef, one of the co-owners of Meuse Brewing raised a few concerns. She believes that the dialogue surrounding the changes is giving people the wrong impression stating, “It’s not opening up public spaces to public drinking. This permit would still have the limitation of a designated drinking area at events approved for these permits.”

Estelle also voiced a disagreement with the claim that this change to the legislation is “supporting local festivals, small businesses, and tourism.” She believes that “it is going to do the opposite.”

As a vendor who attends and supports numerous local events she offered great insight, how supporting local vendors keeps events running. She said that “Local festivals that already serve alcoholic beverages do so to make money to pay for the event. Removing that isn’t “lowering overhead costs,” it’s reducing a good revenue stream for the event. Something like Waterford’s Pumpkinfest does a great job at bringing in local producers to serve their products. It is effective as it supports the Waterford Lions and local businesses.” As local business owners, Estelle van Kleef and Mischa Geven, who started Meuse in 2018, take great pride in combining their passion for Belgian beers with the local farming traditions of Norfolk County. A pride that has paid off as they have won multiple awards. Their bottle shop and market is located at 1903 WIndham Road 3, and is open on Fridays from 12-6, Saturdays 12-7, and Sundays 12-5.

Local brewers weren’t the only ones who had concerns with this change. Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Bobbi Ann Brady also weighed in on the matter stating, “We don’t want to see local breweries not participating in local events because people are taking their own beverages. I have some worry this will be detrimental to some local businesses and event organizers.”

She also noted that the Ford government “seems to have a pre-occupation with all things alcohol… Maybe it is another distraction from the real issues in this province. Alcohol is not the only way we can encourage economic development.” Brady also mentioned concerns about the liability associated with people bringing their own alcohol. This sentiment was reiterated by the Wine Sales Manager from the Hounds of Erie, Laura Kuchma, who said it would be difficult to monitor how much people were consuming, and what this would mean for community safety.

Ultimately, the Ford government’s emphasis on loosening alcohol restrictions is likely not ending anytime soon. The changes made still allow local event organizers the liberty to decide if they want to continue operating with local vendors, or switch to a BYOB system.