BC announces new restrictions for bars, pubs, and restaurants

On Tuesday, BC’s Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, announced new orders for bars, pubs, and restaurants across the province.

In addition to ordering all nightclubs and banquet halls in BC to close, Henry stated that liquor sales in all bars, pubs, and restaurants must also cease at 10 pm.

On top of that, these venues must now close at 11 pm, unless they include meal service, said Henry.

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“The way liquor licenses are, it’s a spectrum and sometimes places can get around some of the issues by serving more food, that’s one of the things we were trying to wrestle,” said Henry.

As well, new provisions are being put in place to limit the volume of music in these establishments, so that they are no louder than the volume of conversation.

Henry said the liquor sales and closure restrictions for restaurants, bars, and pubs technically come into place today, September 8, but stated there would be a “grace period where we’ll work things out and the details will be worked out and posted publicly within the next day or so.”

With files from Eric Zimmer.