It's no April Fool's joke: On April 1 liquor laws province-wide will be overhauled for the first time in 60 years.

Later operating times, easier social planning and allowing beauty salons and art galleries to serve booze are just a few highlights from Friday's rollout.

Manitobans first heard of many of these upcoming changes last year, when they were expected to be in place by the end of 2013.

But it took a little longer to do it right, explained Ron Lemieux, minister responsible for Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries.

"To work with restaurants, hotel industries, salons, spas — to work with all these organizations — they have unique concerns, they also want to have some input and want to have it done right. You put that all together it takes time," he said. "So for us as a government we wanted to make sure there was a social responsibility part to it. It wasn't just turning on all the taps and just let the booze flow down the street."

But bars will be allowed to stay open until 2 a.m. on Sundays as part of standardized opening hours, that will also allow hotel vendors to open from 8 a.m. to 2:30 a.m., and specialty liquor stores from 8 a.m. to midnight.

Liquor Marts, however, will remain on their current hours — for now. A spokeswoman for Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries said opening hours will be examined in the future.

Those changes will help operators respond to consumer tastes, said Elizabeth Stephenson, CAO of the Liquor and Gaming Authority of Manitoba.

"When we worked with the industry one of the things they asked for was the option to set operating and sale hours in accordance with what would work with their business model," Stephenson said.

Small venues will no longer have to serve hot food. Also out: "balanced meal" requirements and only allowing customers to order liquor with food in dining rooms.

﻿Representatives from Restaurants Canada and Manitoba Restaurant and Food Services Association agreed the changes will ease the bureaucracy in an over-regulated industry, but would like to see the province go even further.

Although pleased to see the elimination of the food-to-liquor sales ratio, Dwayne Marling of Restaurants Canada said he would like to see more done to relax seating rules for small eateries.

"There's still limitations around that, you still need to have 50% of your space available (for food)," he said. "If you are a small venue, like 35-seat venue, it might make a difference if you have 18 seats available for food service, with 17 seats where I'm serving liquor."

WHO IT AFFECTS:

Lounges, dining rooms:

— Customers will be allowed to order liquor without food in 50% of restaurant

— No more requirements for "a balanced meal"

— No more requirements for liquor-to-food ratio

Small live entertainment venues:

— No more requirement for on-site kitchen and hot food service

Special events:

— Restaurants and hotels can apply to operate as a live entertainment venue up to 12 times during 2014

— More opportunity for special occasions, like serving at 5 a.m. for the Olympic men's hockey gold game

Salons, spas, art galleries:

— Option to order a beverage

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Socials:

— Single online application for socials for liquor and raffle permits

— Eliminating outdated bottle limits and quotas, with the focus on enforcing the responsible service and consumption of alcohol rather than counting bottles

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Holidays:

­— No more holiday sale and service restrictions (except on Remembrance Day)

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Late nights:

­— Licencees (a.k.a. bars) will be able to open 9 a.m. to 2 a.m., seven days a week

­— Liquor Marts, specialty vendors and specialty wine stores can open 8 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week

— Hotel beer vendors allowed to open 8 a.m. to 2:30 a.m., seven days a week