La Ronge Chamber of Commerce meeting on proposed liquor restrictions. Photo by David Smith.
About thirty people attended a special meeting of the La Ronge Chamber of Commerce Tuesday night to discuss proposed changes to liquor regulations in the area.
The gathering started with presentations by Harold Johnson, Carla Frohaug and Joan Johnson who worked to develop the Community Alcohol Management Plan (CAMP).
That plan has been endorsed by community leaders in La Ronge, Air Ronge and the Lac La Ronge Indian Band.
“Is an addiction centre the answer? No,” he said. “Is a public drink house where people can go, and can alcohol be a medicine in a sense for a lot of these addicted people? This was all brought forward tonight. It was quite informative.”
Watt says some business owners are concerned about having to deal with public drunkenness on a daily basis, especially on paydays — but whatever changes end up being made, it will have to involve all communities in the area.
Northern Medical Health Officer Dr. James Irvine gave a presentation on the effects of alcohol misuse in the region.
He says attitudes toward alcohol need to change, but there is already progress being made in areas like medication for addictions treatment.
“As of July 1, the Provincial Drug Plan is offering that medication, so those changes will start to happen,” he said. “And in the fall, there will be more education sessions available for health professionals and community members that can help move that forward.”
Information gathered at Tuesday night’s Chamber of Commerce meeting will be shared with communities in the La Ronge area.
Recommendations will then be made and another meeting open to the public is expected to be held in August.
Mayor clarifies stance on proposal
Earlier on Tuesday, MBC spoke with Mayor Ron Woytowich who said he knows he’s been a “lightning rod” in media quotes about the controversial liquor proposal over the past week, but he doesn’t want people to think he’s opposed to making changes on liquor use in La Ronge.
Woytowich said his primary reason for voting against a town council motion to approve the proposal in principle, is that he wanted to hear from the community first and didn’t want it to look like he was backing the proposal in full before the public was consulted.
Some of the confusion around the proposal revolves around how it’s been presented to the public; Woytowich said the point-by-point list of 49 recommendations the public has seen is actually a distilled version of the report council was presented with last month. He said the list was compiled by a town administrator who wanted to make it “so everybody could make sense of the whole report” before a meeting between local business owners and council on the topic last week.
La Ronge council meets on July 12, 2017. MBC photo.
In either form – a list or report – Woytowich said he has a problem with the proposal “because it doesn’t talk about how to deal with the vulnerable people and it doesn’t talk about” treatment despite Lac La Ronge Indian Band having a proposal on the table for a treatment centre.
“We have an alcohol problem yes, and we have an addictions problem,” he said.
“There’s nothing wrong with addressing it and working to control it but we also at the same time have to make a solution in some way that just doesn’t say ‘we’re going to take away the alcohol as sales’ or ‘we’re going to change and make sure the people read a sign on the wall that says there’s a cab ride going home.’”
He says the proposal does not just affect La Ronge and wants to know what provincial elements, and possible bylaw approvals in both Air Ronge and Lac La Ronge Indian Band, need to take place in order for the proposed changes to go ahead.