Provincial police in the region are lobbying the LCBO for changes.
Inspector Jeff Duggan from the Kenora OPP Detachment says officers are called to constantly deal with theft and even assaults.
“You need to have a Manitoba model…you need to have somebody checking ID at the door,” Duggan told the Kenora Police Services Board in their inaugural meeting this week.
“We’re lobbied for them to actually close at least an extra day a week…so say if they were closed on a Sunday or Monday and Sioux Lookout was successful in it, we were not. But that would allow us a bit of a break, a bit of a reset.”
Duggan adds the local LCBO has been very receptive to their suggestions, but their lobby efforts have fallen on deaf ears at the provincial head office of the Liquor Control Board.
“We lobbied the liquor store to change their front door. They are getting thefts. They are getting assaults on staff. So we didn’t lobby it as a Kenora detachment, we lobbied it as a region, to say this is a problem at all of our detachment areas.”
Duggan says with the liquor store open seven days a week, officers don’t get a break.
He adds that in his 20 years, he’s never responded to a theft from the Beer Store.
