Booze may soon be allowed in more Calgary parks

After 1,556 bookings and only two complaints this year, city administrators say Calgarians could soon get more places to imbibe in city parks.

Last summer, the city set aside 58 picnic tables in local parks as free bookable locations where people could uncork a bottle of wine or crack open a beer. 

The success of the pilot program has city officials recommending council add new sites to the program.

For 2022, the city is suggesting alcohol consumption be allowed in up to 10 local parks — in full or in designated zones.

Twenty new bookable tables could be added to the inventory of sites, and instant bookings could be permitted through scannable QR codes.

As well, the city is recommending that alcohol be allowed at its winter firepit locations.

Public can be trusted

Ward 11 Coun. Kourtney Penner said Calgarians have shown they can responsibly consume liquor in city parks so she supports expanding the pilot project.

"The data that we've seen is that it's been largely successful and that some of those potential challenges haven't been realized," said Penner.

"We can trust our public to act responsibly. I think Calgarians do want to act responsibly. They know that the risk is by not, that we lose pilot projects."

City council's community development committee voted unanimously on Wednesday in favour of the expansion plan.

The only dissenting feedback came from an official with Alberta Health Services.

Public not pushing for it

The medical officer of health for the Calgary zone, Dr. Karla Gustafson, said there's been no public call for greater options, so she suggested council leave the pilot program as it is.

If council were being asked to allow smoking everywhere in its parks, there would be greater concern than is being shown about alcohol, Gustafson said.

During the pandemic, she said, alcohol consumption in Alberta has increased and mental health problems have become more common.

She told the committee that parks should be left for people to use for recreation, relaxation and safe play for children rather than becoming just another place to drink.

"Let parks be parks. We don't need to turn our city parks into unsupervised bars," said Gustafson.

Council to decide

Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra acknowledged alcohol is a bigger killer of Albertans than opioids and this isn't talked about much.

But he said part of the point of this pilot project is to destigmatize alcohol and allow responsible use without condoning abuse of it.

"I feel comfortable pursuing a further pilot and I hope the rest of committee is interested in doing this as well," said Carra.

Given the approval from the council committee, the matter will be discussed by city council as a whole next month.