The owner of the Rio Theatre has once again found herself in the middle of a regulatory Gulag created by the B.C. Liberal government.

The liquor control and licensing branch has denied Corinne Lea's request to show evening fillms at her East Van cinema house between February 27 and March 1.

That's because under a new regulation, Lea must apply for any temporary change in her liquor licence 14 business days in advance of the event.

This weekend, Lea pointed out to the Georgia Straight that it was impossible for her to give 14 business days' notice because as of tomorrow, the new regulation will have only been in place for 12 business days.

"Last week, they allowed us to show films by waiving the 14-day notice I'm supposed to give," Lea said. "So they had to give me a sort of special waiver."

That won't be the case this week, according to a letter to Lea from the liquor branch's deputy manager of licensing, Cheryl Caldwell.

After Lea replied with an objection, Caldwell wrote back, maintaining that her office "has made every effort to assist the Rio Theatre in its transition to a licensed establishment".

Lea, however, claimed that the liquor branch's inflexibility is threatening the viability of her independent theatre, which is on East Broadway just west of Commercial Drive.

"The position they're putting me in is I either have to cancel my programming or I have to continue with my programming and allow them to fine me," she said. "I think they can fine me $3,000 a day, which, obviously, would put me out of business."

In other words, she said, the liquor branch is forcing her to choose how her theatre should be run into the ground—rather than crafting language in a regulation that makes it easier to switch to showing a film, where liquor would not be served.

The new regulation continues the prohibition on movie theatres from having a liquor licence. Under the law, the Rio is defined as a "live event theatre", which enables it to serve alcohol.

Lea must have advance approval from the liquor branch to show movies.

The new regulation also places limits on making adjustments to programming: "Once the days and hours of liquor service have been approved by the branch, temporary changes to those liquor service hours will be approved only occasionally (in the range of three to four times per year) for events such as a bona fide film festival."

Lea said that this language in the regulation doesn't recognize the reality of her business. She stated that sometimes, a promoter will cancel a live event, often on short notice. And her fallback position has been to show movies, because they're the easiest thing to plug into the schedule because they don't require nearly as much promotion.

That will no longer be possible if the liquor branch only allows three or four schedule changes per year—and even then, on 14 business days' notice.

On February 25, Lea wrote to the minister in charge of liquor regulation, Rich Coleman, asserting that the liquor branch made an error by threatening to cancel the Rio's programming this week.

"We need you to waive the 14 days notice and allow our application for a Temp change to be granted to our programming next week," Lea wrote. "We are doing the best we can to survive under these circumstances and I greatly appreciate your efforts to make policy changes that are under way. However, we hope that this problem we are having with the LCLB denying our program without alcohol does not continue to be a weekly issue while we wait for these changes to be put in place."

Later in the letter, Lea declared: "This matter is urgent, as we cannot afford to cancel any more of our programming. I hope you will offer us a solution so we can continue our film screenings scheduled for the week beginning Monday, February 27th 2012."

The previous day, Lea sent another note to Coleman pointing out that the Rio is required to pay a $110 fee "every time we don't want to sell alcohol". She noted that this will become very costly, given the number of events that the Rio hosts where the sale of alcohol is prohibited.