The City of Port Alberni will be drafting a new policy to deal with a growing problem of alcohol within the city.

During a regular meeting of council on Monday, March 24, Port Alberni council asked city staff to work with Island Health to draft a municipal alcohol policy.

The decision comes after a pair of meetings where medical health officer Dr. Charmaine Enns warned council that alcohol consumption has been increasing in Port Alberni over the past 10 years. Residents aged 15 and older consumed an average of 15.3 drinks a week in 2023, which is an "increasing trend," Enns told council during a committee of the whole meeting on Monday, March 17.

The health risks associated with alcohol are "not largely understood" by the drinking population, Enns said, but she warned that alcohol is a carcinogen and seven or more drinks a week presents an "increasingly high risk" of cancer.

In 2024, the rate of alcohol hospitalizations in the Alberni-Clayoquot region (which includes both West Coast General Hospital and Tofino General Hospital) was 53 times higher than the rate of opioid hospitalizations.

鈥淭he normalization of alcohol has been so intense for so long, and there鈥檚 been significant effort to make it an individual issue instead of a societal issue,鈥� said Enns.

While some people might argue that alcohol presents an economic advantage for communities, Enns says the province is actually losing money when it comes to alcohol 鈥� the costs of healthcare, lost productivity and criminal justice outweigh the revenue gained from alcohol sales.

Enns said there are many things municipal councils can do to enact alcohol control policies within their jurisdictions. Councils can control the access and availability of alcohol through zoning, which can determine hours of alcohol sales and geographical locations of businesses.

The District of Tofino adopted a municipal alcohol policy in 2018. Enns says this is a good first step. A community alcohol strategy is "one step higher" in terms of comprehensive strategies to 鈥渄e-normalize鈥� alcohol consumption within a society, said Enns. Tofino is currently in the process of developing such a strategy.

Port Alberni Mayor Sharie Minions said it's important for the city to have a municipal alcohol policy that can be used when liquor licence or business licence applications come up.

鈥淲e all are very aware of the harm that exists when people are deep in an addiction to alcohol,鈥� she said. 鈥淗owever, there鈥檚 so little awareness about the harm that comes from casual drinking.鈥�