As the Gastown pedestrian project nears its end, it is evident that the closure to road traffic was not the success that the City of Vancouver had hoped for when they launched their pilot for Summer 2024. 

Reduced street access has resulted in up to an estimated 20-50% decline in sales for some businesses. Some have reported that their sales now are worse than the days of the COVID-19 restrictions. 

The costs have far outweighed any benefits for this initiative and it is our hope that Vancouver City Council listens intently to the Gastown BIA and the business owners that have lost significant revenue due to the road closures if they are going to try another version of this in 2025.

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Downtown Van Steps Up Security

Downtown Van has a new pilot program with Paladin Security. They will be deploying two full-time guards to patrol the Downtown Van district from 2PM to 10 PM, 7 days a week to work alongside the Downtown Safety Ambassadors to “address high-priority calls and enhance overall safety in the downtowncore.” Their Ambassadors will continue to focus on community safety with a hands-off approach, while these new guards will take on a more security-oriented role.

We wish to commend Downtown Van for this effort to protect the people and businesses of downtown Vancouver and improve the safety and security for all. 

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A Patio License In Vancouver Will Cost You More Than Other Cities In Canada

During the pandemic, the City of Vancouver took positive steps to simplify and expand its patio program, allowing businesses to adapt more quickly. However, Vancouver small businesses still face high costs and lengthy wait times for approvals compared to other major municipalities across the country.

Vancouver small businesses are being charged up to $1,451 for a first-time sidewalk patio permit. See the recent research by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) for the patio comparison costs across Canada. 

Vancouver $1,102-$1,451 (4 weeks)

Calgary $116 (6 weeks)

Saskatoon $0 (3 weeks)

Winnipeg $0 (1 day)

Toronto $917 (8 weeks)

Ottawa $1,424 (2 weeks)

Montreal $1,065 (time varies)

“The City of Vancouver is on the right path, but more work needs to be done to ensure patio permits are affordable and issued in a timely manner,” said Emily Boston, CFIB’s BC Senior Policy Analyst. “Right now, it can take up to four weeks for a Vancouver business to get a patio permit approved, whereas Winnipeg sets the gold standard with same-day approvals.”

Rising Tide Consultants works closely with both Vancouver City Council and the LCRB to ensure that the needs of our clients is communicated clearly and we are in full support of these fees being brought into a more reasonable alignment with our other Canadian counterparts. 

Client Spotlight

Forged Axe in Victoria has just received approval for their new LP license Rising Tide Consultants is so happy that this is finally a reality after a significant amount of time and effort to bring this to fruition. We don’t know about you, but we think this experience is worth a road trip! Don’t miss their location in Whistler too!

The domestic food court at Vancouver International Airport just got a whole lot better!

Triple O’s now joins the lineup with their new Food Primary license. Waiting for your flight isn’t quite as stressful now with this yummy addition.

Ash Street Bistro Bar & Bistro now has full approval for their new patios at the Legacy Senior Living Facility on 41st Avenue in Vancouver. The patio is not just for residents and their friends and family, it is now open to the public. Reservations required – call 604.240.8550

Mayor Sim Casts Tie-Breaker Vote In Favour Of Natural Gas In New Construction

Rising Tide Consultants is in full support of Vancouver City Council’s recent decision to include the choice of renewable natural gas, natural gas, hydrogen fuels in home and business heating in new construction in the near future.

This is a win for industry and we are grateful to Council’s fair and progressive decision to allow affordable and sustainable options for restaurants to utilize renewable energy resources for their operations.

We Are Here To Help

If you need advice or guidance with your licensing challenges or business operations, get in touch with us. 

Contact Rising Tide

The recent report by @pacificsolutionscontracting commissioned by the @bcrfa and the BC Coalition for Affordable Dependable Energy, shows that the cost could be upwards of $800,000 for an existing restaurant to convert to electricity from natural gas. This number includes all aspects of the process from hiring the experts required, new equipment, renovations, and installations, plus the revenue lost during the business interruption while all that is taking place.

The BCRFA is asking municipal governments to take this evaluation seriously and put the brakes on the zero carbon step code regulations that would ban the use of natural gas in new buildings ahead of provincial 2030 targets. Not only does this seriously question the economic impact on restaurants, but the feasibility of the proposal itself. Restaurants in 2024 do not have $800K sitting around in the bank; quite the opposite in fact. 

Rising Tide Consultants support our friends at the BCRFA, calling for a common-sense approach to energy which includes electricity, natural gas and renewable natural gas. 

For the full article: https://www.biv.com/news/hospitality-marketing-tourism/bc-restaurants-could-not-afford-natural-gas-ban-report-8892145

Rising Tide Consultants is pleased to announce that we offer design services to support our valued clients! By providing professionally drafted floor plans in AutoCad or Sketchup, you no longer need to engage an outside designer or pay your architect to do your floor plan drawings. This allows you to save time and money by streamlining the design process in presenting your drawings for your architect’s approval and facilitating a smooth submission to the city.

Rising Tide’s very own Meagan Morris completed the Residential Interiors program (DDA) at the University of Alberta and has extensive experience designing for residential and commercial projects across North America.

We are currently working on multiple projects for premiere Downtown Vancouver hotel locations. Get in touch to see how we can assist with your design needs.

We all love to cheer on our Canucks during the playoffs, but we are urging our clients to remember to create a safe and compliant environment for their patrons this season.

Responsible alcohol service is essential in keeping our city safe for these upcoming celebrations, so please be vigilant in enforcing your liquor service policies and ensure that proper ID practices are always adhered to.

Remember if you are caught serving alcohol to a minor you will be fined $7,000 on the spot! Over-service is a key factor in situations escalating to a point no one wants to see, so watch your guest’s consumption closely.

Alcohol products purchased to-go must be accompanied by a meal, and by this we mean not just a bag of chips. Want to know what constitutes a “meal” in this instance? Give us a call

Both the VPD and inspectors from the LCRB will be out in full force during the games so be sure to have the following items up to date and ready to show if they pay you a visit:

• Serving it Right certificates for all serving staff
• Your liquor & business license posted correctly
• Current floor plan
• Liquor register
• Alcohol Sense Materials
• Policy & Procedures Manuals that outline responsible liquor service

Missing some items? Have questions about getting this all organized in time? We are here to help!

Let’s all work cooperatively with our enforcement teams that are working hard to protect the citizens of Vancouver and prioritize mindful service and safety practices so that we can have a fun, successful Stanley Cup playoff season!

The team at Rising Tide Consultants has been researching avenues to help industry in the defence against the Government’s Minors as Agents program.

The Minors as Agents program is funded and regulated by the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch, whereby “youthful-appearing adults” are recruited to attempt to purchase liquor on the Branch’s behalf. The issue is the agents can often appear older, and if a judgment call is made to not ask for ID, the business can be in some very hot water.

One of the key resources Rising Tide has discovered is a revolutionary POS and Payment Processing System all in one convenient hand held device. Endorsed by Forbes as the #1 restaurant POS system with over 93,000 restaurant locations around the world, Toast is now available in Canada.

The functionalities are 100% geared towards hospitality venues with one very important one that will aid in prevention of a $7,000 fine and possible subsequent 21 day suspension of your liquor license, which are the penalties if you are caught in non-compliance with the Minors as Agents program.

You can customize the POS to default to an initial screen reminding the service staff to check for valid ID that requires acknowledgment before they are allowed to proceed to processing any order. This should not only prevent the service of alcohol to minors, but if an infraction does occur, then you have a strong defence of due diligence.

There is also an SOS functionality that the service staff can press a button that immediately communicates a distress message to your desired printer location in the event of an intoxicated, belligerent or difficult customer interaction. This is mapped to the table directly and is invisible to the customer.

For more information on Toast and deeper insight on how you can guard your business against the MAP, contact us directly.

Vancouver City Council met Wednesday, Dec 13, 2023 on some very important issues for Industry.

We are proud to be a member of the Hospitality Task Force with key industry partners, including the BCRFA, ABLE BC, Restaurants Canada, The Craft Brewer’s Guild and the BCHA that has been advocating to the city on the following key issues. We are pleased to report some impactful wins! Vancouver is no longer “No Fun City.”

The existing licensing moratoriums for Granville Street, Chinatown and Gastown have been eliminated so those areas of Vancouver are now open for new business licenses or expansion of existing licensed establishments.

“With respect to the moratorium on Granville Street, my view is moratoriums just prop up the dinosaurs, it does not allow for creativity, innovation, and a new opportunity to breathe life in. You’re just propping up the cheap bars, with cheap drinks, and you end up with drunks. I think you need to have that creativity and innovation to allow us to compete with other cities.” ~Bert Hick, Founder and President Rising Tide Consultants

The distancing requirements of licensed establishments has also been eliminated, clearing the way for more licensed establishments of similar size.

The licensing of retail business with liquor primary licenses, such as Spas, Beauty Salons and Retail Stores has now been approved. This will allow for these types of businesses to serve alcohol to their patrons along with their regular retail business.

These are very positive outcomes and we are proud to have been an integral part of bringing these changes to the City of Vancouver. We promise to continue our mission to streamline processes, slash red tape and eliminate antiquated policies for the benefit of our tourism and hospitality industries.

Read the City News article HERE

MINORS AS AGENTS – STRATEGIC PROTECTION PLANS

Rising Tide Consultants has 35 years of experience in Liquor Licensing and Compliance and is the expert in navigating challenging situations for hospitality and retail. The Government Minors As Agents Program is something all owners and operators should be watching out for to avoid a $7,000 fine and possible 21 day closure!

In November 2022, the Liquor & Cannabis Regulation Branch announced they were resuming the Minors as Agents Program of sending a minor into restaurants, bars, and liquor stores without providing identification. They have been very successful in catching licensees not requiring 2 pieces of valid identification in these transactions.

Rising Tide Consultants can help you avoid falling victim to this targeted program by arming you with the right information and training to lay the proper groundwork to avoid penalties or dispute a charge if you are caught in non-compliance.

We will do an on-site visit to your establishment to thoroughly audit your operation and provide you with a personalized Strategic Plan that will inform you of what you can do to set you up for the best chance of success.

We will address proper policies and procedures with regard to ID practices, communication to your staff and management, and updated systems you can put in place to ensure compliance and give you the defence of due diligence. We can also customize a policies and procedures manual for your business for an additional fee.

Value $1,200
Feature Rate $499 (+applicable taxes)

Contact us now to lock in this feature rate and protect your business against this program that the branch is making a very significant priority at a time when the industry is still fragile.

info@risingtideconsultants.ca
604.669.292

Bert Hick, a liquor and cannabis licensing expert who heads Rising Tide Consultants, said he is “saddened” by the news and fears for the whole hospitality industry.

“A lot of it was COVID,” said Hick, but it’s also labour shortages, rising costs and the looming payback of pandemic financial supports from the federal government.

“It’s a bit of a perfect storm,” said Hick. “The hospitality industry is very, very fragile right now. My prediction is you’re going to hear more horror stories in the coming months” with the COVID relief payments coming due at the end of the year.

The Donnelly Group, which owns pubs and clubs that are fixtures in Vancouver’s nightlife and hospitality industry, is filing for creditor protection.

The Vancouver-based company, which operates more than a dozen pubs, clubs and restaurants in Vancouver and Toronto under the Freehouse Collective, said Wednesday it has started proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) to revise the terms of existing loans and restructure debt it needed to take on to survive COVID-19.

The Donnelly Group has opted to initiate the creditor protection process to restructure to avoid closing locations and laying off employees, said company founder and CEO Jeff Donnelly.

“We could have gone one of two directions. We could have, frankly, just closed a bunch of our businesses and just stuck with the real winners, and we would have been OK,” Donnelly said Wednesday. “But we might have lost half of our workforce. And when you’ve got 800 employees, that just wasn’t an option for us.

“This is what we need to do to keep these places open, so we’re going to do it,” Donnelly said. “We’re going to come out stronger than we were before.”

In a petition filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday, the company asked the court to appoint Ernst & Young as a monitor over its affairs as it works out a restructuring plan with its creditors.

The petition involves 12 pubs, cocktail clubs and restaurants in Vancouver — including the Lamplighter, Butcher & Bullock, and Brass Fish — and two in Toronto, as well as three Barber & Co barbershops, Bomber Brewing in East Vancouver, and a company that handles the cleaning of the hospitality venues.

In total, 750 people are employed in Freehouse’s hospitality venues, 40 at Bomber Brewing, and 25 at Barber & Co.

A retail cannabis business also owned by Donnelly, called Lightbox and doing business as Dutch Love, is subject to separate insolvency proceedings, after applying for creditor protection late last year.

The company said the move was necessary to survive the crippling economic impact wrought by the pandemic on the hospitality industry.

It will work on a restructuring plan and streamline operations in the next couple months as part of the proceedings, but expects to continue operations at its locations and “engage its employees at current levels during the CCAA proceeding and afterwards.”

The company said its decision to restructure isn’t a reflection of its employees but a “strategic response to the industry-wide impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

B.C. Restaurant and Foodservices Association head Ian Tostenson said Donnelly’s entrepreneurship and vision were worthy of him being named to the B.C. Restaurant Hall of Fame pre-pandemic, but the expansion into barber shops, cannabis and brewing proved costly with the COVID downturn.

“It was working then in that economy,” said Tostenson. “You could fuel that kind of machine, that kind of business then.”

He noted the whole industry got hit hard, acting as “a bit of a canary in the coal mine” for retail generally because of closures, capacity limits and other challenges.

Then, when customers started coming back, inflation hit along with supply chain challenges, increasing labour costs and a shortage of workers.

“We’re seeing bankruptcies up 116 per cent year-over- year,” said Tostenson, and less than 50 per cent of all restaurants in a recent survey were making money.

Bert Hick, a liquor and cannabis licensing expert who heads Rising Tide Consultants, said he is “saddened” by the news and fears for the whole hospitality industry.

“A lot of it was COVID,” said Hick, but it’s also labour shortages, rising costs and the looming payback of pandemic financial supports from the federal government.

“It’s a bit of a perfect storm,” said Hick. “The hospitality industry is very, very fragile right now. My prediction is you’re going to hear more horror stories in the coming months” with the COVID relief payments coming due at the end of the year.

“A lot of business owners took those loans on the premise (business) would come back,” noted Tostenson. “And it did for a couple of months, but then inflation kicked in.”

Hick and Tostenson both praised the Donnelly Group as exemplary operators with an impeccable record in the industry.

Like most in the hospitality industry, the Donnelly Group’s businesses were shuttered in March 2020 as a result of the pandemic and reopened gradually in the following years.

According to Donnelly Group’s petition filed this week, the businesses were able to maintain payment of debts until 2021, when they negotiated an agreement with BMO, the primary lender, to make monthly interest-only payments.

Once venues reopened in 2022, the businesses faced further economic challenges due to hikes in the minimum wage, supply chain issues, and rising insurance and interest rates.

Revenues have returned to 2019 levels, increased labour and operational costs mean thinner margins and a lower profit, said the company.

The hospitality entities listed in the petition currently owe BMO about $13.6 million, while Bomber Brewing owes $1.25 million, according to the petition. Their monthly debt servicing payments total about $295,000 a month.

While the petitioners have been able to make interest-only payments to BMO following a 2021 agreement with the bank, they “are not in a position to make principal repayments on a go-forward basis,” said the petition.

BMO supports Donnelly’s restructuring, and the lender has agreed in principle to restructure the company’s payments during the process, the petition says: “BMO benefits by the continued operation of the enterprise by present management, which represents its best prospect of recovery.”

Donnelly is also in arrears with some landlords to the tune of about $766,000, is in arrears for PST, and faces lawsuits from landlords and other creditors.

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-pub-chain-donnelly-group-seeks-creditor-protection

Think the Minors As Agents Program doesn’t apply to you? Think again

The ‘Minors as Agents’ program is ramping up inspections and enforcement. Are you prepared? Rising Tide provides support, knowledge and expertise in all facets of liquor licensing, compliance and enforcement issues. One of the hot topics facing the industry right now is the MINORS AS AGENTS program. 

Although it is commonly thought that retail liquor stores are the main targeted businesses for this initiative, it actually applies to all liquor primary, food primary, restaurants, pubs, cannabis stores as well as retail liquor stores.

The Minors as Agents program is funded and regulated by the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch, whereby “youthful-appearing adults” are recruited to attempt to purchase liquor on the Branch’s behalf from businesses selling liquor or cannabis. The youthful appearance of the agents is intended to raise concerns by employees as to whether or not the agents were minors and proceed to require two pieces of proper identification before the purchase of liquor or cannabis is allowed. The issue is the agents can often appear older, and if a judgment call is made to not ask for ID, the business can be in some very hot water. 

The first infraction is a $7,000 FINE or 7 day suspension. If you pay this fine and the infraction goes on your permanent record, then your second or subsequent infractions within a calendar year (and you can be sure that they will be targeting your establishment again) could result in a higher fine or up to a 21-DAY SUSPENSION of your liquor license.

Rising Tide Consultants are experts on this program, so we can help your business take measures to protect against the risks and penalties and, if necessary, fight a non-compliance charge alongside you. We also do audits of licensed establishments to make sure they can pass a routine inspection by ensuring the proper policies and procedures are in place. Contact us now and learn how to avoid falling victim to this targeted program. Government is increasing its focus and has been ramping up inspections and enforcement last year, and it will be continuing in 2023.

Rising Tide can provide you with updated Policy and Procedure manuals, training on ID protocols and placement of appropriate ID signage within your establishment so that your staff are armed with the right information and training to lay the proper groundwork to avoid penalties or dispute a charge if you are caught in non-compliance.

We’re here to help.
Contact Us
Your Initial Consultation is Complimentary.

Bert Hick, President & Founder of Rising Tide Consultants, spoke March 8th at the Standing Committee on City Finance and Services on Vancouver’s efforts to liberalize rules governing alcohol and the hospitality industry. Up for discussion was a “dual license” that would enable an establishment to serve food during the day and then transition into a bar in the evening.

Vancouver council considers three “dual licence” applications, from Cinema Public House and Cold Tea, both on the Downtown Granville strip, as well as Hamburger Mary’s in Davie Village.

Bert addressed Council asking for 2 Miracles.

“Miracle #1 is to amend current legislation to allow new establishments that are opening to apply for a dual license right off the bat. Right now, you have to have an existing Class 1 or Class 2 license in order to apply for a dual license.”

“Miracle #2 is to get rid of the antiquated policy that predates 2005 that simply does not work and doesn’t exist in any other city, regarding the minimum distance between certain classes of liquor primary establishments, when existing establishments are seeking dual licensing.”

Following Mr. Hick’s address to Council, we are pleased to announce that Cinema Public House has been approved for their dual license!