Liquor Changes Take Effect April 1st – No Fooling
Prince George, B.C. – Liquor sales in grocery stores will be legal as of April 1st, 2015.
That doesn’t mean the sales will appear on that day, only that everything will be in place by that time.
The Provincial Government says it is rectifying a system that appeared to give B.C. Liquor Stores an unfair advantage.
- B.C. liquor stores will be allowed to extend their hours of operation and will be allowed to open on Sundays and holidays.
- Refrigeration will be allowed in BC liquor stores
- One wholesale price for all liquor store buyers
- The moratorium on the number of private liquor store licences will continue, as previously committed.
There are 196 BC Liquor Stores in B.C., 670 private liquor stores, 221 rural agency stores and 12 independent wine stores.
Justice Minister SusaN Anton says the impact of the changes on consumers will be up to the retail outlet “Every retail outlet will be at the same starting line” She says if you are paying $15 dollars for a bottle of wine now, it should still cost $15 when the changes take place April 1st.
She says the changes “will create a more competitive market for retailers, and will bring B.C.’s liquor laws into the modern age.”
Comments
Still having a strictly regulated and heavily taxed industry is not the “modern age.”
Modern age…not even close.. So many rules that hurt possible alcohol sales from stores already established..
Modern Age !!?? that is a joke? Modern age is when walmart and Superstore etc. can sell liquor at their own established prices.
I think the effective date of April 1st, basically covers everything.
Why should there by a ‘common’ starting line? Business is not a primary school fun sports day. If Costco (or whomever) can negotiate an exclusive purchase of product from a BC Winery (brewery) at a discounted price, then that is a ‘more competitive market for retailers”.
The producer is happy, the retailer is happy, the consumer is happy and the existing gravy train for government-enabled co-dependent operators is over.
The Mafia would be proud of how tightly the government controls pricing, distribution and sales of liquor.
Hey JB, every now and then, I support your position and this is one of those times. The government and the Mafia both have a strong dislike for competition if it involves them.
I agree with the comments about liquor being pretty expensive. There’s lots of proof of that. But if your the government, what incentive is there to privatize the system? I checked and the Liquor distribution branch kicks in about $1 Billion in profits and PST for the provincial government to use. That’s about 2.5% of the overall money the Province uses each year.
So if you privatize the process then about $800 million would go into private companies pockets as the profits would shift from the government to the companies selling the liquor. Yes, some of that would come back in the form of extra corporate taxes, but overall, they are probably still out at least half a billion.
Then there’s the argument of decent paying liquor distribution branch employees would all be gone and replaced with minimum wage workers. I know a bunch of you will think, well they are overpaid workers. Well, don’t kid yourselves. I think we need to wake up to who really likes the idea of privatization, it’s private business as there are good profits to be made. A bunch more money in their pockets and some small drops in liquor prices to the consumer to get them to go along with this BS.
I for one think we need good paying jobs in this province, not minimum wage jobs. So we pay more for alcohol, don’t we still live in a great province!!
Go to Washington or Oregon state and buy BC beer cold for 8$ a case is just BS
The government super taxes alcohol
Mwk is absolutely right. This government is all about private enterprise not matter how detrimental to the taxpayers that they are supposed to be accountable to.
The sad part is that there is no viable alternative party to replace them.
just bought wine at Costco and Winco in Bellingham $3.37 for Sangara Mist and a large bottle of Vodka for $32. and I do mean large . Canada is taxing everyone to death .
Hope Costco is getting it in PG .
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