Pub hour extension controversy never should have gotten this far
It is hard not to agree with Sage Pub owner Allan Redekopp who just wants the Town of Osoyoos to treat him the same as his competition.
At issue is the Sage Pub's request to extend its hours to 2 a.m., something town council recently permitted The Owl Pub to do.
Council has not yet turned down the Sage's request, but if the debate at its last public meeting is any indication then it certainly looks at though it will. In fact, if councillor Tom Shields had not raised the issue of support on a temporary basis, then it is quite likely the request would have been turned down at that meeting.
We aren't criticizing council's reason for concern, which is essentially the Sage's location in a residential area and the noise and disturbances later into the night this extension would cause.
What we are critical of, however, is council not looking ahead when it approved the exact same request from The Owl Pub. It is the job of council to forsee these things long before they actually become issues. There is no question council should have looked at the implications of this type of hour exention on all of the pubs in town prior to granting any of them. By not doing so, and approving one extension and not the other, council will essentially be giving one private business an unfair competitive advantage over another.
In our opion that is not the role of municipal government, or of any government for that matter.
We hate to keep banging away at the same kind of issues, but it looks like once again council has dropped the ball and created a controversy where one didn't need to exist.
