Ontario’s Liberals are turning again to promising
“modernized” drinking laws to divert attention from issues that
embarrass them, but they sound like they have hoisted a few glasses
themselves. Premier Dalton McGuinty says he favours allowing diners
to bring their own bottles of wine to restaurants because it would
be cheaper for them and, grandly, more civilized and a “coming of
age for Ontario.”
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| name="valign" top > ERIC DOWD |
Consumer Services Minister Jim Watson added
diners also would be allowed to take home partly-drunk bottles to
save still more money and, not to be outdone, this would help bring
Ontario into the 21st century.
The Liberals want to distract voters from
concerns including Finance Minister Greg Sorbara having been a
director of a company now being investigated by police and their
inability to pay for some of their promises because of a
deficit.
This strategy has had some success and many are
licking their lips at the prospect of an opportunity to drink
cheaply, particularly when it is portrayed as a
new freedom.
The last Liberal premier, David Peterson,
promised to allow wines to be sold in corner grocery stores
and
acquiring an image as a reformer, although he
never did it.
McGuinty’s plan has a surface appeal because
diners could save through buying wine at liquor store prices and
avoid the markups restaurants add, and take along a favourite wine
a restaurant may not stock.
But it has downsides the premier did not
acknowledge. If restaurants they do not supply customers with their
drink —and they might not notice when one slips his own bottle on a
table—they will not know how much they drink and be able to
exercise some control.
Restaurants need to worry because courts have
held them responsible for acts committed by those who have been
drinking on their premises, but the public also stands to lose some
protection.
Some diners will drink more because it is cheap
and become offensive to others wanting quiet conversations and
family meals, or buy fries and sit drinking all night, changing
upscale restaurants into drinking dens.
If diners are encouraged to take home their
half-empty bottles, even some who drank little inevitably will drop
them in darkness or snow and ice and leave glass scattered
dangerously.
A few will drink the last drops and toss bottles
on the streets and anyone who disputes this does not know human
nature. Having thousands more people, some inebriated, carrying
bottles opened or unopened on the streets at night is not exactly
conducive to safety.
Ontario law also currently forbids carrying open
bottles in an attempt to prevent drinking on streets, but anyone
found doing so will be able to claim he is returning from a
restaurant and police will be unable to disprove this, even with
lengthy, time-consuming investigations.
The Liberals paint restaurants as gougers who
sell wine at unnecessarily inflated prices and fail to recognize
they have substantial costs ranging from buying or renting
high-traffic locations to employing staff to cook and serve.
Restaurants recoup these outlays by charging
markups in what they sell, as do all retail businesses from
groceries selling bread to clothing stores selling shirts, and
no-one is suggesting they should be forbidden their markups.
The rate of failures among restaurants also is
much higher than for any other type of business – walk along a busy
street and look how often they close and reopen with new names and
new owners.
This suggests they are not making huge profits
and would need to recover what they lose through diners bringing
their own bottles by substantial corkage or other charges just to
survive, leaving diners no better off financially.
McGuinty says there are other jurisdictions that
allow diners to bring their own bottles without problems, but a lot
more don’t, for good reasons.
McGuinty did not mention any of these things, but
it is more appealing to promise new freedoms.
Eric Dowd is a veteran member of the Queen’s
Park press gallery.
