Aaron and Charity Janzen, owners of Super A Foods in Battleford, were at Town Hall Monday to present a petition asking town council to refuse any business licence applications for private liquor stores.
Also attending were Colin Lemauviel, president of the North Battleford and District Labour Council, plus an employee of the public liquor store in Battleford.
They were unable to get a promise that the Town would disallow private liquor store licences, but they were assured that, when the time comes, council will do everything it can to see any private liquor vendor located downtown.
In presenting the petition, the Janzens, who have owned Super A for three years, said they have enjoyed serving the community of Battleford and surrounding area, but their business has lost sales with the expansion of Walmart into groceries, the downturn in the oil industry and the closure of the downtown location of the post office.
"The year Walmart expanded we were down $30,000," said Aaron. "Since the oil slump and the closure of the downtown post office, we are on track for a drop in sales of $150,000 this year."
While sales have dropped, he said costs of operations, including taxes and labour, has stayed the same or increased.
"We are not the only business owners who have experienced a decrease in sales due to drops in traffic," he said.
He added the provincial government has stated they will not close the public liquor store until a private store has been opened.
Mayor Derek Mahon described council's situation in light of the provincial government's plan to privatize liquor stores in the province, including Battleford's.
"Basically, the government of Saskatchewan has made this decision and they're moving forward. As far as town council is concerned … if we pass a motion to not allow any private liquor stores in the town of Battleford that means as the government moves forward there will be no liquor store in Battleford."
He noted the Official Community Plan for Battleford, the document that assists in the planning and management of future growth and development, has a focus on encouraging downtown business. While the Town has jurisdiction over zoning and bylaws, they don't have jurisdiction over liquor and gaming and choices that are made by the provincial government.
Aaron conceded that it was not the fact that a new liquor vendor would be a private vendor that was the main issue. The location is key.
"It depends on where is it located," he said, "On other side of the highway over by the Co-op, I think it would be negative."
Councillor Ames Leslie thanked the Janzens for the work they had done in collecting signatures for the petition, and agreed with Aaron's statement.
"I'm not necessarily adverse to a private liquor store, more adverse to one not being downtown," said Leslie.
While the Town probably doesn't have the ability to stop the government from giving a liquor licence to a private vendor, they may have the influence to make sure that the liquor store is located in the downtown core.
"That's what our Official Community Plan and zoning bylaws can help us do with this, they can help us prevent it from going out to the Co-op. We can have influence in that way," he said.
Leslie said to the Janzens, "I can give you my word that I will fight to make sure that if a private store comes in it will be downtown. I can't say what they are going to do or what they're thinking, but I agree 100 per cent we need it downtown. We don't need it out by Co-op, we don't need it out by Tim Hortons, that's not where my mind sits."
He said, however, he couldn't sign the Janzens' petition because, with 63 valid names, it wasn't representative enough of the 4,500 people in Battleford to have his vote to "try to stop something that's going to come in regardless."
He commended the Janzens for showing passion for their community, showing they have bought into the town long term.
"I can't necessarily put my name on this, but I definitely can tell you that I will try my hardest to not let it go anywhere but the downtown area."
Councillor Doug Laing weighed in, saying, "There are two issues we've talked about more than anybody realizes in these council chambers, lots of times during the day when we have other committee meetings … the liquor board store and the post office on the other end of town and how they affect the residents and the businesses."
Laing said Super A isn't the only business that has made statements to the Town.
"In my personal opinion, if we lose them both, [it's] impossible to get those businesses back once they are gone."
That could start a snowball effect council does not want to see.
"We've had tons of discussion on this, but, as His Worship has pointed out, both of those entities, one's federal and one's provincial, we don't supersede those guys."
But, he assured the Janzens, council will do what it can, working with whatever tools are available to them to help all Battleford's businesses stay viable.
"We're working on it," said Laing. "We can only do what we can only do; our hands are kind of tied."
Mayor Mahon said the provincial government has sent out request for proposals for three liquor stores in Saskatoon and two in Regina as stage one, and Monday it released five more requests for proposals, for Yorkton, Melville, Lloydminster, Moose Jaw and Kindersley.
"This is the second phase of four phases," he said. "I understand that Battleford will be included in the third or fourth phase."
A government backgrounder indicates the third phase, scheduled to be released July 25 and close Sept. 7, will include Battleford along with 19 other similar-sized communities, including Wilkie and Unity.
It seems likely Battleford, being of a population less than 5,000, could have a vendor located within an existing business.
"Liquor retail sales within an existing business (ex. hardware store, convenience store, etc.) is consistent with the current model of liquor retailers in small communities," states the backgrounder.
Interestingly, the backgrounder also states, "… it is recognized that there are existing operators in such communities operating an ‘integrated’ retail model (ex. some city hotels/brew pubs sell alcohol for off-premise consumption from a location behind the bar, rather than a separate off-sale store). Such operations will be able to continue to exist as integrated facilities until the business is sold or transferred."
During discussion of the petition Monday evening, CAO John Enns-Wind told the delegation he has been working with local businesses to revive a downtown business association to work together toward growing the downtown economically and make it a place where people want to be.
"There are a number of things we can do to enhance downtown to take advantage of a number of the features that we have, that's going to take a lot of work," he said. "I have volunteered to sit on this committee to ensure we do that."
Janzen said he would be happy to be part of the project.
