A brand new brewery in North Vancouver is almost ready to welcome guests, but a provincewide labour dispute has put those plans on hold.
Bridge Brewing Company’s new taproom has been three years in the making. The beer is stocked, the taps are almost ready, and staff have been hired.
“We wanted something bigger, something for the community,” said Bridge Brewing Company’s consumption director Leigh Stratton.
“It’s been a lot of patience on our end, but it’s really come together, and we’re super excited for the space.”
But an ongoing strike by B.C. General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) is keeping provincial liquor inspectors off the job and behind picket lines.
Without inspections, the brewery cannot obtain a liquor license, which means it cannot serve alcohol.
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“The cost of building brand new breweries is quite significant. We went into it knowing when we would be able to open and budget it accordingly,” said Stratton.
“Every day that goes by is revenue that we’re not able to collect, guests that we’re not able to serve and staff that we’re not able to employ.”
It’s not just one business caught in the middle.
The BC Craft Brewers Guild states that the strike has already disrupted supply lines and is now halting new openings.
“We need you back at the table. We need this to end. We need you to roll up your sleeves and get this done because the effect of what’s happening here is catastrophic on a number of businesses in all the sectors,” said BC Craft Brewers Guild’s executive director, Ken Beattie.
Even if the strike ended tomorrow, the guild says the backlog of inspections and beer deliveries would stretch for weeks.
The strike is once again fuelling calls for regulation changes within the industry.
“You have to pass a bunch of municipal, local municipal bylaws and checks and inspections, and you have to also do that on a provincial level, and often they’re repeated,” said Beattie.
“So, we’ve been working with the government and asking for a much more streamlined, much more fast system that doesn’t do this repeating.”
Job action will soon be heading into its seventh week.
For now, Stratton and her team are stuck waiting for the strike to end.
“I certainly understand and respect the employees’ right for their job action, and then the government being on the other side. But we’re collateral damage,” she said.
“We’d love to just be able to move forward, create our business, have our employees come back to work and have guests here, and we’re just stuck in limbo waiting for the two sides to come to the table and make an agreement.”
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