A proposed liquor license for the Trans Mountain work camp in Clearwater will get a second chance at a public hearing tonight.

ATCO is seeking approval from the BC Liquor Distribution Branch, and needs endorsement from Clearwater mayor and council.

Mayor Merlin Blackwell says council turned down the request last month, and offered ATCO a chance to re-submit.

“We’ve opened it back up to the public. We’ve offered the proponent, ATCO, with the assistance of Trans Mountain, to go to the community, garner some more support, do a better-prepared presentation. And we had heard from quite a few community members that there was a need to approve this license, for safety reasons.”

The liquor license would only be valid in the lounge of the work camp, from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

“There’s a lot of factors in this liquor license decision. One is that Trans Mountain, at the gate of this camp, will have some of the most stringent COVID-19 screening and security practices for other things, like impairedness, at their gate. Nobody gets in and out without basically a health check. That gives us a lot of confidence to allow their people out into the community,” Blackwell says.

“Because of COVID-19 and phase three that we’re in, they can actually only use up to 50 seats out of the 120-130 in the lounge at this time, due to physical distancing requirements. So of the 400-plus people who will be in that camp fairly soon, it will only allow for 50 people at a time to use it.”

The public hearing tonight will take place at the Dutch Lake Community Centre from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.