Microbrewers making pitch to pour at PMC

The owners of two local microbreweries will be speaking to city council Monday about selling their beer at the Memorial Centre.

Councillors are considering selling Molson, plus beer from microbreweries. They gave preliminary approval to that plan last week; now it has to be ratified.

Prior to the vote on Monday, Public House owner Marty Laskaris and Smithavens Brewing Company owner Randy Smith will be giving presentations to council.

Council has been deliberating on which beer to serve at the arena for three months now.

The Memorial Centre has served only Molson/Coors for about 12 years.

But when Molson’s contract ran out in August, council didn’t automatically renew it. They asked for bidders and they got two: Molson and Labatt.

Although city staff recommended switching to Labatt - which proposed to serve higher-end beers, such as Stella Artois, to increase revenue - council balked.

It didn’t want to sever a 12-year relationship with Molson, which had always offered good service.

Molson had also promised to lease a private suite in the arena.

Councillors voted last week to see if the company is still interested in serving most of the beer at the arena.

In addition, staff will be expected to ask microbreweries - including local ones - whether they wanted to sell some of their beer at the Memorial Centre too. Don’t forget to check The

Examiner’s website Monday for livestreaming of the meeting, plus live-blogging and tweets.

The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.

NOTE: See more city council coverage on Pages A2, A3 and A6.