By Devi Ramachandran
Some Ottawa bar patrons may ring in the new year elsewhere if Ottawa bars don’t extend their opening hours past 2 a.m.
“It’s New Year’s, we want to be there all night . . . if they don’t in Ottawa, I’ll go to Montreal,” says Wiplove Lamba, 19, who plans to dance all night.
So far Newfoundland and Quebec are the only provinces to make concessions for the big millennium bash.
Newfoundland will allow bars to stay open without a break for 42 hours from New Year’s Eve to early Jan. 2. Quebecers will have five extra hours to toast the new year until 8 a.m.
Ontario’s Minister of Consumer and Commercial Relations, Robert Runciman, will decide in a couple of weeks whether bars will be given a special permit to extend their hours.
Last month, Premier Mike Harris announced that the province is considering allowing bars and restaurants to stay open for 42 hours straight.
The decision should be more consistent across the provinces, says Chuck Sinsennes, manager of The Fire Station Bar and Grill on Elgin Street. Sinsennes says celebrators everywhere should be allowed to let the night last as long as possible.
“This should be a national decision. It should almost be mandatory on the Ontario side at least for safety reasons,” Sinsennes says.
Sinsennes says a positive decision doesn’t translate into increased sales. “By 2 a.m. people have already drank as much as they want to,” he says. “From a business perspective it’s a special event, it’ll never happen again,” Sinsennes says.
“There is a lot of interest in the business community, the hospitality industry and among consumers,” said Maurice Simms, the information officer at the Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations.
“It’s a new new year and it’s something special. There’s more enthusiasm, people see it as being different,” he says.
Simms says the minister will take all factors into consideration including whether Ontario police think it’s a good idea. He will also look into what social organizations think.
Runciman will consider places like Ottawa in making his decision because cross-border hours become an issue, Simms says.
The later opening hours traditionally allowed in Quebec bars were the reason that Ontario bars and pubs extended their hours three years ago.
“If Ottawa bars close early, it’s silly,” says Daniel Jutzi, 19, who plans to go to clubbing on that auspicious night.
“People will stumble around the streets drunk and cold after the bars close,” he says.
If party-seekers stay in one place, they can make it home safer afterwards, Jutzi says.
“I’d like to be close to home, so I could walk home if I want to,” Jutzi says. “Quebec is not close to home.”