Canada: Consider downsides of looser alcohol rules, warn health, substance use experts
Thunder Bay has higher rates of heavy drinking, underage drinking than provincial average
By Amy Hadley
April 17, 2019
It may mean more convenience for consumers, but health and substance use experts in Thunder Bay, Ont., are warning that the province’s loosened regulations on alcohol will also come with costs.
In the 2019 budget, the province announced a number of changes related to alcohol, including plans to allow licensed establishments to begin serving at 9 a.m., and introducing proposed legislation that will allow municipalities to designate public areas where consumption of alcohol is permitted.
Changes like that are cause for concern, said Janice Piper, manager of injury prevention and substance misuse at the Thunder Bay District Health Unit.
“There’s a lot of evidence that makes it clear that increasing the availability of alcohol by doing these things is really linked to increased consumption of alcohol,” she said, adding that increased consumption can, in turn, lead to health and social problems.
“So more outlets, more alcohol use, really leads to higher rates of injury, illness and crime.”
The city already has higher rates of heavy drinking and underage drinking than the provincial average, she said.
“I think there will be implications for first responders, like police and emergency services, as well as the healthcare system,” she added. “So I think that … this increased convenience is going to have high costs in our area.”
The fact that research shows alcohol availability and alcohol-related problems are linked, makes the regulation changes especially concerning, given what’s known about alcohol consumption in the Thunder Bay area, said Cynthia Olsen, the city’s drug strategy coordinator.
“In a community where we already have approximately 55 to 60 per cent of adults over 19 that are drinking in excess of the low-risk alcohol drinking guidelines … that’s really concerning,” she said, citing data from 2015.
If, down the road, the city is faced with a choice about whether it will allow drinking in public areas, such as parks, the Thunder Bay Drug Strategy will provide information and recommendations to help with the decision, Olsen explained.
Piper said the health unit continually works with the municipality to try to address health and social harms related to alcohol. She said they’d also like to see Ontario adopt a provincial strategy around alcohol.
“The government did have a line in the budget about being committed to safe consumption of alcohol as a priority,” she said, “and we’ll continue to highlight the need for that.”