Business - Champagne should be flowing at New Year’s

Liquor shortage not affecting Okotoks retailers

By Darlene Casten
Staff reporter

Okotoks residents looking to tip a glass this holiday season will be able to find the poison of their choice, despite wide spread reports of liquor shortages in Calgary liquor stores.
More Albertans than ever will be toasting the season this year, putting the provincial distributors and merchants in a pinch as New Year’s approaches.
The province has seen a 20 per cent increase over last year’s peak demand for alcohol — a demand that Alberta’s only liquor distribution warehouse is taking steps to address.
Connect Logistics holds the sole contract to house and distribute liquor to the thousands of retailers across the province.
George Rodziewicz, spokesperson for Connect Logistics, said moves have been made to increase staff, fill orders and move shipments faster.
“The big issue has been delivery and we have improved that drastically,” Rodziewicz said. “Now we have our orders there in three to four days. Before it was seven to eight days.”
Alcohol shortages are still occurring due to not enough supply of some of the most popular holiday alcohol choices like Irish cream liquor and spiced rum.
Agents who order the alcohol that is stored at Connect Logistics’ warehouse may not have anticipated the record-breaking demand for these products, Rodziewicz said.
“I don’t think anyone could anticipate the increase we are experiencing now,” he said.
However, Tim Price, owner of Tower Hill Wines, said he expected that supplies would be tight as the holidays approached.
Price made sure his storehouse was full prior to December, but still has had to make an extra effort to make sure all the standards would be on the shelves.
“I spend more time on orders — probably 12 to 15 hours,” he said.
All the extra work paid off and Price said he has been able to get a lot of the perennially out of stock items.
The only glitch was a late delivery of champagne, which he was finally able to stock last week.
Price said he has also not been able to get his hands on some labels of wines, but has replaced them with other labels to keep his selection at its regular level.
Joanne Magee, manager of Crowfoot Liquor in Okotoks, echoed the issues Price has been facing in preparation for Christmas and New Year’s.
“We are in pretty good shape because we started our Christmas buys in September,” she explained. “We have had trouble getting some wines out of Australia and I don’t know why.”
She said they too had problems securing some liquors and spiced rum, but those issues have since been addressed and their shelves are fully stocked.
“It is not that was no supply it is a shortage of labour at the distributor,” she explained. “They trailers in the compound but no one to unload the trailers and get it to the warehouse.”
Although Crowfoot Liquor is well prepared, Magee said because they are one of 13 stores in the chain they have a little more pull with the distributor. Something the smaller independents do not.
“I feel bad for the little independents because they are in a tough situation,” she said. “Not everyone is in good shape and if you can’t do well at Christmas you aren’t going to make it.”
In the long run Price said retailers need to lobby for a change in the monopoly on distribution.
“We should have worked on this earlier,” he said.
Problems with short orders are an ongoing problem that is difficult for retailers to deal with, according to Price.
“We pay for our products when we order them, but we won’t know what we will get until it arrives and then we are credited,” he explained.

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Helping the hungry

Court - Teen who attempted to abduct cousin sentenced

By Pamela Roth
Staff reporter

An Okotoks teen who attempted to abduct his 10-year-old cousin last summer was sentenced to an 18-month intensive support and supervision order last Thursday.
At Okotoks Provincial Court the teen, who pleaded guilty in November to break and enter and disguised with intent to commit an indictable offence, spoke about how he entered the Cimarron area residence of his aunt and uncle early on July 18 through an unlocked living room window.
Once inside, the teen went into the kitchen and picked up a steak knife before heading into the bedroom of his 10-year-old cousin, who was asleep at the time.
The girl awoke to find the teen standing over her in a threatening manner. He then told her to get up or he would cut her throat.
When the pair were in the hallway, the girl managed to break free and run to her parents bedroom, causing the assailant to flee the residence.
According to Crown prosecutor Michael Ewenson, the girl woke her parents up and told them about the incident, however, they assumed she had had a bad dream and told her to go back to her room.
The next morning, the girls’ mother discovered the living room screen had been pushed out of the window frame and there were muddy footprints on the floor, along with a knife.
A forensic team collected physical evidence, which pointed to the accused being involved. The girl also reported she had recognized the accused from the sound of his voice and the clothing he was wearing at the time.
After several days of searching, the teen was finally located and he admitted to police he intended to remove the girl from the residence and possibly sexually assault her.
The 16-year-old, who cannot be named due to the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was ordered to undergo a psychological assessment, risk assessment and pre-sentence report before sentencing.
Defence lawyer, Victor Russell, and Ewenson presented a joint submission to the court, emphasizing that the Youth Criminal Justice Act focuses on rehabilitation rather than incarceration.
“This is a circumstance where we really have to be concerned with rehabilitation,” said Ewenson. “This really came out of the blue for everyone involved. It is the Crown’s hope, given the proper sentence, nothing like this will ever happen again.”
With the intensive support and supervision order, the teen must abide by a number of conditions, including attending an assessment for counselling or treatment as directed by his probation officer and abiding by a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
He is also not to have contact with the victim, or anyone under the age of 13, unless accompanied by an adult, and was placed under a DNA order.
Russell emphasized the incident was completely out of character for the teen, who is already attending counseling.
“Clearly some impulse control issues need to be addressed in terms of treatment,” said Russell. “There is all the reason to believe that he will be successful in treatment.”
Since attempted abductions are virtually unheard of in Okotoks, the incident sent a wave of fear throughout the community.
Reports began to surface about a peeping Tom that had also frequented the same neighbourhood, however, police confirmed the incidents were separate from the attempted abduction.
Ewenson noted the concern the incident raised among the general public, but emphasized those concerns were eased once it was known that the attempted abduction was not a random attack.