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Friday 24 May 2013

Fire at Lafleche

CBC Saskatchewan News. Photo by Evelyn L'Heureux

On May 21, 2013, the 100-year-old Flying Goose Inn was destroyed by fire at Lafleche, Saskatchewan.  The fire, which likely started on the smoker's deck outside the bar, was discovered at 9:00 p.m.  Evelyn L'Heureux, who owned the hotel with her husband Larry, said it didn't take long for the three-storey hotel to burn. "The Lafleche fire department was there, and then as it progressed, Larry decided that we should call in the Kincaid fire department and Gravelbourg," she said.  "I turned around half an hour later and all the farmers came in from the field and had their water tanks loaded on the backs of their trucks. There they all were, lined up like a convoy, waiting to help.” Source  Click for video

Origins


Hubert and Marie Brooks
The 30-room hotel, originally named the Hotel Metropole, was built in 1913 - the same year that the village of Lafleche was incorporated.  It's original owners were Frank X. Brunelle and Hubert Brooks.  Hubert Brooks and his wife Marie moved their family to Lafleche from St. John, North Dakota, in June of 1913 to operate the Hotel Metropole.  Hubert, age 50, had been a general store merchant in St. John.  When his store burned down, he decided to make a change, attracted perhaps by advertisements offering homestead land in the Canadian West.  Brooks and his sons did try their hand at farming near Lafleche, however they soon gave up due to rough and stoney land. Source

 
Hubert Brooks' son Aime helped run the hotel (named on cash register). Source


100 Years Later


Larry and Evelyn L'Heureux bought the hotel, now called the Flying Goose Inn, in 1996.  The couple added an eight-room motel in 2003, and the old hotel building was used only for the bar and restaurant. "We have tried to keep the decor of both the bar and the restaurant in connection with the wildlife theme and many visitors have taken the time to enjoy the artwork displayed," the hotel web site stated. "The Flying Goose Inn also showcases the local talent that we have in our area including a championship boxer as well as some local rodeo talent." Source  In 2010, the L'Heureux put the hotel up for sale, asking $465,000. Source

Flying Goose Inn, c. 2010.  Google street view

Reflecting on the loss of the hotel in May of 2013, Evelyn said, "It's devastating because it was a vital part of the community. People had been going there for many, many years before we even owned it. We did many things there too - weddings, funerals, graduations - and that's the sad part of it, that the community has lost a vital part of their town," Source

Click here  for video of CTV Regina's tour of Lafleche in 2009.


© Joan Champ, 2013


 
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Sunday 30 December 2012

Changes to Saskatchewan's Liquor Laws in 2012


On November 20, 2012, the Saskatchewan Party government unveiled sweeping changes to the provincial liquor laws and regulations.[i] [Read information about the 70 changes here.] They will come into effect in the spring of 2013.

Of great concern for rural hoteliers is the new regulation doing away with restrictions requiring drinking establishments to also provide hotel rooms, brew pubs or nightly entertainment in order to qualify for a liquor license. In addition, other businesses like restaurants can now operate off-sale outlets. In the words of Murray Mandryk, columnist for the Regina Leader-Post, “We're finally dispensing with the quaint prairie notion that only rural hotels with rooms (regardless of how dilapidated) should be allowed to sell off-sale.”[ii] Nevertheless, these changes have the potential to cause the demise of small-town Saskatchewan hotels – businesses critical to many rural communities.  

The long list of changes also includes allowing "strip-tease performances and wet clothing contests in adult-only liquor-permitted premises," although full frontal nudity will continue to be prohibited. It remains to be seen (no pun intended), but perhaps rural hotel owners will embrace this once-banned entertainment offering as a new way to generate revenue.

CBC: Image source

© Joan Champ, 2012 



[i] Government of Saskatchewan, “Government modernizes more than 70 liquor regulations,” news release, November 20, 2012.
[ii] “Liquor laws stripped-down in the new Sask.,” Regina Leader-Post, November 21, 2012.

Sunday 20 November 2011

The Viability of Saskatchewan's Rural Hotels

Snowmobilers stop for a brew at the Pioneer Hotel in Wiseton (pop. 96), 2006. Joan Champ photo

While hotels are one of the oldest and most common forms of business enterprise in small-town Saskatchewan, today, in most cases, they are hotels in name only. They do not rely on room rental for revenue. The rural hotel business is all about the beverage room. The sale of alcohol – mainly beer – is the primary source of annual operating revenues – or at least it was until the introduction of video lottery terminals (VLTs) in 1993.

VLTs at the end of the bar, Delisle Hotel, May 2011. Joan Champ photo

Since the 1970s, beverage rooms have been continuously renovated. Steak pits and other amenities have been added, and a wide variety of entertainment – shuffleboard tables, pool tables, karaoke machines and live bands – have been featured in bars across the province. In 1993, the VLT program was introduced, providing an additional source of entertainment – and revenue – for liquor-permitted hotels in rural communities.

Typical rural hotel room
Up until recently, small-town hotels needed to have a minimum number of guest rooms in order to qualify for a liquor license. In 1987, according to Sean Kenny’s report on the viability of rural hotels for the Saskatchewan Liquor Board, licensed hotels in communities with less than 200 taxpayers had to have a minimum of seven rooms. Even at that, the hotels in these small towns had an occupancy rate of only 10 percent. Kenny estimated that only about two (2) percent of total rural hotel revenue came from the provision of accommodation. (Sean Kenny, “Viability Study of the Rural Hotel Industry in Saskatchewan; Project Report.” Regina: Saskatchewan Liquor Board, August 31, 1987, p.10)  

"Please go to bar next door for room rentals, thank you!" Sign in the lobby of the Delisle Hotel, May 2011. Joan Champ photo
 
On June 22, 1988, Graham Taylor, Saskatchewan’s Minister of Tourism and Small Business, told the Saskatchewan Legislature that he did not think it was necessary for rural hotels to have rooms. “The day of the rooms in the rural hotel, I think, in many cases has somewhat passed,” Taylor said, “and therefore it may be an advantage to hoteliers to not have it [the liquor license] tied entirely to rooms.” (Hansard, Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly, June 22, 1988) 

Room at the Delisle Hotel, May 2011. Joan Champ photo

As recently as 2009. the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority’s “Commercial Liquor Permittee Policy Manual” stated that, to qualify for a beverage room license, a hotel in a rural community had to have a minimum of six guest rooms.  

On November 20, 2012, the Saskatchewan Party government unveiled sweeping changes to the provincial liquor laws and regulations that put rural hotels at risk. The list of 70 changes that came into effect in the spring of 2013 included the elimination of a minimum guest room requirement. In the words of Murray Mandryk, columnist for the Regina Leader-Post, “We're finally dispensing with the quaint prairie notion that only rural hotels with rooms (regardless of how dilapidated) should be allowed to sell off-sale.” (November 12, 2012) 

One of the 70 changes included “allowing strip-tease performances and wet clothing contests in adult-only liquor-permitted premises.” The first venue in the province to feature strip-tease entertainment was the bar in the hotel at Codette, a village 260 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon. After the first stripper show was held at the Codette Hotel and Bar on January 2, 2014, owner Bryan Baraniski told the Saskatoon StarPhoenix it was a success. “We had a full house. Everyone had a good time,” he said. “It’s just a different sort of entertainment. We used to bring in bands and now we’re bringing strippers instead of bands.”

Codette Hotel’s stripper shows were short-lived. On March 25, 2015, Brad Wall, Premier of Saskatchewan, announced that the government had made a mistake when it allowed licensed strip clubs in the province and reversed that decision. “If by this decision we have inadvertently allowed for even a marginal increase in the chance for human trafficking, it’s the wrong decision,” Wall told the Regina Leader-Post. 

Of greatest concern for rural hoteliers, however, was and is the new regulation that allows businesses other than hotels to obtain a license to operate off-sale liquor outlets. Of all the changes, this one has the most potential to cause the demise of small-town Saskatchewan hotels – businesses critical to many rural communities. Sustained largely by beverage room revenues including VLT income, most of Saskatchewan’s small-town hotels are now just a shadow of their former glory days.

Budget Rooms - Daily, Weekly, Monthly - at Melville's Waverley Hotel, June 2006. Joan Champ photo
 
© Joan Champ 2019

Monday 14 November 2011

Two More Century-Old Hotels Burn: Stenen and Young

Stenen Hotel on fire. Trudy Scebenski photo. Image source

They’re going down fast. 

On October 26th the 100-year-old King George Hotel at Stenen burned to the ground. “It was one of the better hotels down the line. Other communities hardly have a hotel and this one was run real well. It was a good place for friends to meet,” said Merv Secundiak, former mayor of Stenen and owner of the town’s general store. “It was a popular place in the community.” Mr Secundiak told the Regina Leader-Post reporter that with the historical building and bar gone, he was planning to close his store and retire. “I’m not going to have anything in this community. It’s terrible. I feel so bad. Why [do] things like this have to happen to a small community?” Click to read full story

Stenen Hotel, July 2006.  Photo courtesy of Ruth Bitner

Young Hotel

Less than two weeks later, another old hotel in rural Saskatchewan was destroyed by fire. Sometime around 2:30 a.m. on November 13th, volunteer firefighters were called to a blaze at the Young Hotel.  Within an hour, flames had completely consumed the building.

The fire was started by two sisters ages 10 and 12 who snuck out of their parents' house at 2:00 a.m. They gathered papers from the Young post office and then went into the front porch of the empty hotel where they started a fire to keep warm. When they returned home, they left the fire unattended. The 12-year-old was charged with mischief, but would be dealt with through an alternative measures program. The 10-year-old was too young to be charged. Both girls apologized.

Young Hotel fire. Photo supplied by Cordelia Ciesielski and Tany Deneiko. Image source

The Young Hotel, formerly called the Manitou Hotel, was built by Thomas Murphy in 1910.  Murphy also built the hotel at Allan that same year.  In 1911, Robert (Bob) Barry bought the hotel and made extensive alterations. The following year, Barry built the Barry Hotel on the corner of Avenue B and 20th Street in Saskatoon. 

In 1918, the Manitou Hotel was sold to Fred and Katheryne Harpold who had emigrated from the USA in 1912. Their son, Ernest, was born at Young in 1915. Katheryne passed away on November 22, 1918 during the Spanish Flu epidemic. A couple of years later, Fred married Myrtle Pearson, a teacher from Indianapolis. After selling the hotel, the Harpolds moved to Melfort and then, in 1936, to Crooked River where they were again in the hotel business.

Mr. Feader owned the Manitou Hotel in Young from 1923 to 1927. Under his management, it was, according to the Young local history book, “recognized as one of the best hotels between Saskatoon and Melville. It was quiet and a homelike place run on a European plan [hotel rate covered the room charge only, but not meals]. Large sample rooms in the Annex of the hotel were at the disposal of travelers.” Footsteps to Follow: A History of Young, Zelma and Districts, 1981, p. 22.

Manitou Hotel, 1937. From Footsteps to Follow: A History of Young, Zelma and Districts, 1981.
From 1927 until 1946, the Manitou Hotel in Young was owned by Charles Jimsie and George Kaw. In 1935, a beer parlour opened in the hotel, replacing the restaurant and ice cream parlour.  In 1946, Otto Renner and his son bought the hotel and built an addition for a restaurant.

Joseph and Katherine Fornalik Prince Albert bought out Renner in 1955.  Patricia Button (nee Fornalik) recalls: “When our family lived in the hotel, it had a verandah and a balcony on the second floor at the front.  .. The café owned by a Chinese couple was next door to the hotel.” Footsteps to Follow: A History of Young, Zelma and Districts, 1981. 

When mixed drinking was allowed in Saskatchewan in 1961, Earl Nicklas bought the Manitou Hotel, turning the beer parlour into a beverage room suitable for “Ladies & Escorts."

Young Hotel Cafe, 2006. J. Champ
Joe and Doreen Freyling owned the Young Hotel for 27 years – from 1981 to 2008. “We enjoyed our time there," Freyling told the StarPhoenix on the day after the fire. "It was a booming place when we bought it. It was a young crowd who'd come out and party at the bar and we'd get right in there too.”  During the years the Freylings owned it, the hotel had a 100-seat bar a 27-seat dining room, a living quarters for the owner, and seven non-modern guest rooms. The people of Young used the hotel as a meeting place. “In a place that's small like Young, when you lose your bar and your restaurant, a sense of community starts to be lost as well,” Darcie Hellman, a former resident of the village, told the CBC. “When the people don't have a place to get together, you start to feel less like a town, right? It's just really sad.”

Giselle Begrand, owner of the Young Hotel for the past three years, was devastated by the loss. "My three kids and I put our blood, sweat and tears — literally blood, sweat and tears — for as long as we could manage here, so everything we owned and everything that we had was put into this," Begrand told CBC News. She was just weeks away from selling the hotel and had no fire insurance.

Young Hotel, April 2006.  Joan Champ photo
Rear view of the Young Hotel, April 2006.  Joan Champ photo
After the fire. Photo courtesy of Meshell Fedrau

 © Joan Champ 2011