Legislating responsible alcohol service: an inside view of the new Liquor Licence Act of Ontario

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The Ontario Government has recently passed a new Liquor Licence Act, based on the recommendations of a special advisory committee. This paper describes how the advisory committee framed the issues and arrived at a lengthy document detailing 73 recommendations on issues such as licence classification, the control of special permit functions, days and hours of operation, legal drinking age, alcohol advertising, the civil liabilities of alcohol providers and server training. The key actors and considerations are discussed, as well as the subsequent Cabinet action on the report and the implementation process currently underway. The paper concludes with an assessment from both an administrative and a public health perspective, with particular attention to the limited role which research played in these policy decisions.