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A prohibition plebicite fails to remove prohibition.
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Despite a 5000-vote margin of people in favour of taverns, pro-temperance groups pointed to the fact that fewer people had actually voted in favour than when the plebiscite first occurred in 1944. Women are still not allowed.
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Starting in 1961, the licensing process started incorporating public hearings into the decision to grant liquor licenses, celebrated in the Chronicle Herald as a sign of “greater procedural fairness.”
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In 1964, the province increased the maximum cost of a bottled beer by a penny, legislation intended to drive revenue up for tavern owners who were being forced to upkeep their businesses.
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The media had been increasingly calling for cabarets, dancing, and wine with meals to show Halifax had “urbanity;” the tourism industry had pressed this point during the 1946 plebiscite. The Associated Tavern Keepers of Nova Scotia, “conscious of the open, ‘barn like’ nature of their establishments,” hoped that this would help remove some of the stigma of alcohol-only taverns, and in the 1960s, eating establishment licenses became available.
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When Nova Scotia opened a casino in 1995, the functions of the Nova Scotia Liquor License Board were bundled up into the province’s Alcohol and Gaming Authority.
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Birdland Cabaret, which sat in the Trade Mart Centre on Brunswick Street, had been seeking a place to move for about a year because of noise affecting the 24-hour call centre below them. The club had identified 1537 Barrington Street to replace the Studio nightclub, which had closed the year before, and housed a bar 15 years prior. Birdland was a lynchpin of the Halifax music scene in the mid-90s; bar owner and booker Greg Clark Birdland birthed Halifax's musical identity.
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“The quiet enjoyment of nearby residents is one of the main principles of our regulations. It is of paramount importance,” continued Shears. “But we will consider each licence application according to its own circumstances.” Birdland was forced to close soon after.
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The Birdland space was eventually home to two bars that lasted only a year apiece between 1997 and 1999.
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Those same Barrington Gate residents were also successful in lobbing enough noise complaints at Blues Corner that it closed down, too; in a 1998 letter to Halifax council, Paul Monahan argued that a bar had operated at the corner of Blowers and Sackville for almost 20 years, with entertainment allowed for the last 11.
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The provincial government makes the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board in charge of making decisions, and transfers enforcement duties to Service Nova Scotia.
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Elwin MacNeil sued the government in 2004 for wrongful termination (“or something along those lines,” MacNeil demurs). He lost his job when the AGA was disbanded. The province settled out of court.
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"In 2000, you actually had a board and an enforcement group that was working together in concert,” said Paul Allen, executive director of the UARB. “What’s happened now is that the pure adjudicative function remains with the board and the Alcohol and Gaming Division—the enforcement group—now has powers to make routine decisions.”
