Layton wants bars to open early for Olympic hockey games

Watch the video above: Bars could open and serve as early as 6:00 am for Olympic hockey finals. Mark Carcasole reports. 

TORONTO – City councillor Mike Layton wants Toronto’s bars to open earlier next week to accommodate the droves of fans watching the Sochi Olympic hockey medal games.

Layton plans to craft a motion to have beer flow from the taps beginning as early as 6 a.m.

“We don’t think that it’s too much to ask, it’s pretty close to the time when they can serve alcohol anyhow,” he said in an interview Thursday. “For these couple days, for the medal games, for men’s and women’s hockey, why not just relax it a bit and let folks celebrate together?”

City council approved a similar motion in 2010 for the World Cup soccer games that were played in South Africa.

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But should the city allow people to drink at 6 a.m.? Layton says the time is irrelevant as long as people are responsible.

“If it’s 11 a.m. or 11 p.m., if it’s before 11 or after 11, really, it’s about drinking responsibly and if people are going to drink responsibly they can do it any time of day,” he said. “Don’t drink and drive, know your limit. You don’t have to overindulge.”

Karen Slezak, president of the Toronto Midtown Business Association thinks Layton’s motion is an “excellent idea” that will help some struggling businesses in the Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue area that have been struggling recently due to increase construction.

And she doesn’t think opening bars early will impact the workplace, though admitted it could happen.

“There’s always that risk that you’ll get some employees who are out early, who are drinking, who aren’t doing what’s appropriate,” she said. “But I think for most people, they’re taking the morning off that day to go out and enjoy maybe one of the hockey games.”

The women’s bronze medal hockey game is Feb. 20 at 7 a.m. ET and the gold medal game is at noon. The men’s hockey bronze medal game is on Feb. 22 at 10 a.m. ET and the gold at 7 a.m. ET on Feb. 23. Layton’s motion would last from the first medal game on Thursday to the last medal game on Sunday.