A policy that will have a significant impact on liquor hours in downtown Vancouver has passed, and it could also have an impact on SkyTrain and public transit if the mayor gets his way.
Daily Hive Urbanized published a story earlier this week about a proposed policy recommended by City of Vancouver staff to extend liquor hours in Vancouver.
That policy has now passed with an additional amendment from Sarah Kirby-Yung. The initial proposal was laid out in the City staff report: “The proposed changes would expand the latest closing time of 3 a.m. to all areas downtown and extend latest closing times outside downtown to 3 a.m. on weekends and 2 a.m. on weeknights. Staff also propose to enable liquor service hours at restaurants to 2 a.m. every night,” the City staff report states.
However, Kirby-Yung’s amendment changes the 3 a.m. time to 4 a.m.
While staff recommended a 3am closure for downtown bars, Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung’s amendment passed, extending the time to 4am to harmonize with Provincial regulations and give businesses the option to operate hours that work best for them.
— ABC Vancouver (@Vote4ABC) July 22, 2025
The changes exclude the Downtown Eastside.
Before the policy passed, Jane Talbot, the president of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA), told Daily Hive Urbanized it’s “a step in the right direction for our hospitality sector.”
Talbot told us that she didn’t think 3 a.m. was late enough, advocating for 4 a.m. closures instead, so the DVBIA should be pleased with the decision.
An additional tweet from ABC Vancouver caught our eye. According to ABC’s X account, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim will be pushing for extending transit hours, including SkyTrain.
“The Mayor will write to TransLink advocating for extended transit service hours downtown, including extended SkyTrain hours, to align with a 4 a.m. closing time,” ABC said.
We’ve reached out to TransLink for its take on the proposed extended hours and how feasible it would be to extend hours for SkyTrain. In response, TransLink told us that the NightBus service is meant to mirror SkyTrain services after hours.
“We work closely with municipalities to ensure services continue to meet demand and will remain in conversation with the City of Vancouver as their plans progress,” TransLink said.
TransLink also told Daily Hive Urbanized that it is “unable to extend SkyTrain hours because of required time to maintain the system,” so the Vancouver mayor has his work cut out for him. In 2019, following a public and media outcry, TransLink completed an in-depth technical study on extending late night hours on SkyTrain, and determined that it would risk proper maintenance requirements and come at a higher financial cost of operating the system.
TransLink also said that it has plans to expand and improve late-night bus service through the Access for Everyone Plan.
While the Vancouver Police Department supported the changes, Vancouver Coastal Health did not, citing health and safety reasons.
The changes impacting Vancouver bars and restaurants will certainly make for a more lively nightlife when the FIFA World Cup arrives in Vancouver next year.
Are you happy with the changes to hours for bars and restaurants?