Tavern owner frustrated with public health order discrepancies

A Saskatchewan tavern owner is frustrated that public health restrictions mandating proof of vaccination for businesses aren’t more fair.

Christine White, who owns the Crossroads Inn in Stoughton, said her hotel is required to ask for proof of vaccination for people to purchase alcohol or eat in the restaurant. Across the street, however, a local Co-op can sell alcohol without requiring proof of vaccination because it’s also a grocery store and therefore an essential service.

“My concern is that the government’s doing it to try and push for vaccinations and it’s not really making sense,” White said. “I think that the playing field needs to be fairer.”

She said she doesn’t see much of a difference between what she sells and the Co-op’s merchandise, apart from the grocery items offered at the Co-op.

“I’m like, ‘well, I can put some loaves of bread on my shelf,’” White said with a chuckle. “I’m only just pushing my customers away and they’re going to walk across the street.”

As a hotel bar and restaurant, White said she’s lost “a lot” of business — about a 50 per cent drop — since Oct. 1 when restrictions surrounding proof of vaccination first came into effect.

White doesn’t blame her customers for wanting to shop somewhere where they don’t have to pull out their wallet and show proof of vaccination, especially in a town where she estimates only 50 to 60 per cent are vaccinated.

“They can come into my store, because I’m a restaurant as well, and they pick up their takeout order, but they can’t buy a bottle from me without showing me proof of vaccination,” she explained.

White simply wants to see more consistency from the government.

“I’d like to see it be fair; there’s no reason they can’t restrict the alcohol in those grocery stores,” she said.

When she tried to inquire about the regulations, White said she was passed between several government organizations and got conflicting information before the Ministry of Health finally explained the discrepancies to her.

“One department didn’t know anything from the next department,” she said. “It took a good 15 minutes of (the Ministry of Health) checking … so nobody knows what’s going on.”

After spending 25 years on her business, White appreciates any business she receives but said the impact to her over the past month has been considerable.

“I’ve spent a lot of money to invest in my own business, building it up, and it’s really hard to go against what your gut is to sell and make money and to help your customers and then now we have to turn them away,” she said.