Nelson Meikle said the recently signed two-year lease between the City of Penticton and Trio Marine group doesn’t change his opposition.
“You can’t go backwards. In the summer of 2015 and the summer of 2016, on provincial-owned lands at the marina, Trio sold liquor without having the correct documentation in place,” said Meikle.
On Dec. 23, 2016, Meikle said he filed a letter asking for the province to revoke Trio’s liquor licence and not allow the people who signed the original application to reapply.
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“The province has 10 business days to respond before I take further legal action against all parties,” Meikle wrote in a letter to the editor.
Trio Marine’s Bistro sits across property lines, with half on city-owned land, and the other half on provincial land — the half containing the counter, kitchen and patio. Meikle said the city and Trio didn’t have the proper agreements with the province for a liquor licence to be granted in the first place.
“One of my cohorts found that out last summer,” said Meikle. But when they brought it to the attention of the city, it was at first denied. “We found the survey stakes and all that stuff. Then they said OK you’re right.”
The two-year lease and sub-licence agreement council endorsed at their Dec. 21, 2016 meeting addressed the problem, making Trio eligible to continue holding a liquor licence until the main agreements kick in.
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Meikle doesn’t think that is good enough.
“My letter to Victoria said I want their license revoked. If they don’t revoke it then I am going to look at my options, the middle of the month or shortly thereafter, with the province etc.,” said Meikle, asking why Trio shouldn’t have to face consequences for serving alcohol under what he believes is an illegal liquor licence.
“That’s just not reasonable,” he said. “They’ve been aware for all this summer that they suspend their license and or a fine in May 2016. That’s never happened. Nothing has happened.”
He first filed a complaint with the B.C. Liquor Control and Licensing Branch in May.
“They’ve investigated it until the cows come home and I haven’t got a final answer back on that complaint,” said Meikle, who says he also hasn’t received any response for his Dec. 23 letter.
“Nothing whatsoever from the city and nothing from the provincial government,” said Meikle.
“For the benefit of the doubt I will send them one more fax and one more legal letter, I am going to call it, and ask them what they are going to do about it,” said Meikle. “I don’t want to be in court and I don’t want to waste the taxpayer’s money, but the City of Penticton, the Province of B.C. and Trio have got to be accountable to the laws of the province and the bylaws of the city. It’s as simple as that.“