FAQs

As defined by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), full-service restaurants are establishments primarily engaged in providing food services to patrons who order and are served while seated and pay after eating.

Illustrative example(s) include:

• family restaurants (e.g., Humpty's, Smitty's, Denny's etc.)
• casual dining restaurants (e.g., Boston Pizza, Moxies, Brimstone Grill etc); and
• fine-dining restaurants (e.g. high-end steakhouses, bistros, other white-tablecloth establishments).

Illustrative examples DO NOT inlcude:

• bars, taverns, pubs and nightclubs that primarily serve alcoholic beverages; or
• food service establishments in which patrons order at a counter and pay before eating.

In Alberta, there are two (2) types of “Class A” liquor licenses and seven (7)types of liquor licenses in total:

• Class A – Minors allowed for the sale and consumption of liquor where food is the primary source of business.
• Class A – Minors prohibited where liquor is the primary source of business.
• Class B – for the sale and consumption of liquor in locations where people pay an entrance or user fee or buy a ticket (such as a recreational facility, tourist facility, racetrack, sports stadium, convention centre, theatre, or certain types of transportation) or for a business that offers goods or services to the public where the primary purpose of the business is not the sale of food or liquor.
• Class C – for the sale and consumption of liquor within a facility that is not open to the public but is primarily for use of members, such as a clubhouse.
• Class D – for the sale of liquor that will be consumed off-site, such as a retail liquor store or off-sales.
• Class E – for manufacturers that have a permanent facility, such as distillers, vintners, or brewers.
• Class F - For production of beer, wine, and cider at a ferment-on-premises facility.

“Class A – Minors Allowed” liquor licenses are specifically—and only—for restaurants (establishments where “food is the primary source of business”) and they are the sole type of liquor license that Council, by amending the Town's Land Use Bylaw, is considering permitting within the Town. 

"Class A Off-Sales" are sales of alcoholic beverages through take-out or delivery from licensed restaurants with or without the purchase of food.  

Liquor products must be in a sealed, commercial container. In the case of draught beer, the cap design of the container (e.g. growlers or crowlers) should demonstrate the container has not been opened during transportation.   

For more information about "Class A Off-Sales", please click here.

"Restrictive covenants" are documents registered against titles of property at the Alberta Land Titles Office. They include an agreement between the owners of two or more properties about how a property may be used and developed. This agreement “runs with the land”, which means that it is binding on all future owners of the subject properties that are referenced in the agreement. 

When the townsite of Raymond was purchased from the North West Irrigation Company in 1903, the Transfer of Land contained a restrictive covenant that prohibits "intoxicating liquors" from being "sold, traded, or bartered, whether by license or otherwise," anywhere on the acquired property. As a result, many parcels of land in the Town remain covered by this restrictive covenant, which means that on many properties in the Town, "intoxicating liquors" simply cannot be "sold traded, or bartered, whether by license or otherwise."

Restrictive covenants, in short, are “private” land use and development controls that supersede the "public” system administered through the Town's Land Use Bylaw.

A land use bylaw is a bylaw that regulates and controls the use and development of land and buildings within a municipality to achieve orderly, efficient, and economic development of the land. 

To view the Town of Raymond's Land Use Bylaw, please click here.

As per Bylaw No. 987-11, the Town's Land Use Bylaw, "Discretionary Use - Municipal Planning Commission " means uses of land or buildings for which a development permit may be approved at the discretion of the Town's Municipal Planning Commission.

This Commission is a committee appointed by Council to act as a Development Authority in accordance with Bylaw No. 1087-20, the Town's Municipal Planning Commission Bylaw. To view the Town's Municipal Planning Commission Bylaw, please click here.