When I first saw this, I thought it was going to be about cross province barriers.
38 Replies to “Beer Freedom”
It seems that Cape Breton Island is green and the rest of Nova Scotia is yellow. What gives?
I had a meal and some beers at a brew pub in Gilbert, Arizona last night. The food and the beer were both good. There are quite few such establishments here.
Alberta is pretty good for in-house breweries but I would love to see more. And it isn’t a government issue either, it is just whether owners are interested in doing it or not since selling your own beer in a your own licensed establishment is eh OK. The hard part happens when you want to get your product into liquor stores, and that is mainly due to high licensing fees that are established by the big mainstream breweries and the government.
I can totally see why the ad would be offensive to convenience store owners. I still get id’d for tobacco, and I am 40 years old.
Our towns convenience store sells gas, fuel, food, tobacco, lottery items and liquor. It is also are post office and ATB bank branch.
And it just isn’t beer in Alberta. No matter how hard you try, you cannot buy an alcoholic beverage from the government in Alberta. They still tax the heck out of it but you don’t end up paying $20 – 30 an hour with a gold plated pension for the slowest moving clerks on the planet.
this dates me , but I remember when you had to fill out the forms at the standup counter , take them to a slow clerk at the desk , get you order pushed on to a roller conveyor but another clerk doing the civil servant shuffle , carry it to the cashier for yet a third clerk , always under the watchful eye of a supervisor . all of this in Alberta , lots of time to be nervous while you were underage. lucky my family isn’t far from the trees , I was a hairy enough 17 year old that I never got asked and had to do the bolt for the door.
I was living up in Tumbler Ridge BC (now I’m in Texas, hows that for a change) the government liquor store went on strike for some reason (I think it was a public union province wide thing) of course the problem for these civil servants was that there was a private store on the other side of town (which is about 200 yards away). So no one cared.
Oh the hardship I had when I saw that the store near the post office was closed and I had to venture all the way over to near the gas station to get my brew…
TIL that the Beerstore is controled by the 3 big brewers, Im not surprised. They control the distribution in the US pretty strong as well. I can’t help but think what gets on the shelf in Ont would be impacted by the owners of the beer store. But I’m sure there is a civil servant looking out for the taxppayer to make sure they are getting access to the good stuff not brewed by the big 3.
I remember those roller conveyors cal2, going to the liquor store with my Dad in Wetaskiwin. He would buy a 6 pack of apple cider every once in awhile for something my brother and I could enjoy in very small quantities as kids.
I have always wondered what that apple cider was called, but it came the same brown stubbies as Molson did.
Yeah, the nanny Ontario laws and old boy’s network haven’t changed in the 40+ years since I was legal to imbibe. All the beer stores in my town haven’t changed at all. you still have to tell them what you want at the counter, the clerk still either calls to the back or goes there and sends it out on the rails. The liqueur store, although a monopoly, at least has moved into the 21st century. At one time you had to go to a counter, fill out a form and take it to the clerk who went into the back, had a coffee or something then came out front to hand it to you.
I wouldn’t really mind if they only allowed the selling of beer and wine at convenience stores and kept the hard stuff at the LCBO.
“I wouldn’t really mind if they only allowed the selling of beer and wine at convenience stores and kept the hard stuff at the LCBO.”
The irony of it all is that they are already selling booze in Ontario at “selected” convenience stores.
Out here in the Ottawa Valley, my local village convenience store is an LCBO/Beer Store “agency”. You can get beer, wine and a small selection of spirits (mostly mickeys) seven days a week.
It does a roaring trade as you can imagine. And no, the owner and staff do not wink and casually sell alcohol to the underaged.
I should have added that what I’ve described above about my village convenience store-cum-LCBO/Beer Store “agency” only makes that ad in the Sun “Beer Freedom” video appear all the more despicably hypocritical.
Going to Alberta from BC is a breath of fresh air. Costco Liquor! Land of milk and honey. Even though it is the store within a store model, much better pricing and selection than in BC. (BC which stands for “Bring Cash”)
The Costco in Las Vegas has them all beat to hell!
Joel in AB “I have always wondered what that apple cider was called, but it came the same brown stubbies as Molson did.”
Growers
Gosh almighty here comes my paranoia again. Why oh why has the old “should we have beer available from private retailers” reared it’s head again?
Couldn’t be part of the Liberal Party of Ontario/Canada flailing about and trying to confuse the issues; could it?
I mean old “blue nose” Ontario treating Citizens as if they are adults wouldn’t be another Lib-media effort to change talking points would it?
I mean there isn’t any bias in the Ontario/Toronto Urban centered media which spends more time drinking uncased malt beverages in little spaces instead of at back yard Bar-B-Q’s.
Just wondering where this all came from; Cheers;
Thank you. I didn’t realize Growers was around so long. I just figured the cider I grew up with went the way of the dodo bird.
remembering brown stubbies is bad enough , anyone remember the Heidelberg beer keg bottles ? they came out then everything reverted to long necks. pilsner in stubbies. uncle bens in stubbies during the beer strikes of 1976, 1977 and maybe 78, when they got all that settled half their market had reverted to yankee beer. uncle bens was so green you couldn’t see thru it .
I was also underage buying beer in Onanole Manitoba , impressed me because cold beer was offsales in the bar but hard liquor was sold where else ? the hardware store.
This reminds me that I have done some work in states
with “Official state alcohol stores.” I guess that
the only way to explain this is that government can
F-up everything it touches.
If they run it, regulate it, or tax it, the effect is the
same. You will pay more for it, and ultimately end up with
less supplies. Think the barren store shelves in the USSR
when collectivist policies devastated the most fertile
farm land in the Soviet Union: Ukraine.
Government stupidity is also causing hops farmers to divert
their crops. Government subsidies are causing them to plant
corn for Ethanol. Stupid people may vote themselves into slavery,
but when the lower classes see their beer prices being
affected, the Al Bundy’s of the world will revolt! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCZpGTEc7Mc
We watched the Dallas Buyers Club last week and maybe the thought of selling monthly memberships is the way out for Ontariominions. /sarc off
Gummint monopolies die hard – this one will spit hiss and scratch until the spike is driven through its heart – taking the booze rackets away from a kleptocracy is like trying to get a leech off an open artery.
I just enjoyed this post sipping on a new vented Molson Canadian Can that I picked up at the Irving on the highway on my way to my work apartment for the week here in NL. They stock the big two domestic stuff at every store, and have now even convinced the government to let them sell single cans of the 431ml variety at these convenience stores.
A km back the highway at the Esso is the “Liquor Express” where I could have stopped instead and got my favourite rum or even such exotic beer as Heineken or Sleeman’s or even Kilkenny. It would be purchased from a small business owner who I’m sure has to jump through a billion hoops for the privilege.
I remember the days of my youth slipping 6 packs of beer into paper bags the perfect size for them on Sunday at the local gas bar back when it was illegal to sell it. Of course at the time I was 16 and shouldn’t have been selling it regardless of the date. You can now legally decide in this province if you wish to consume beer purchased on a Sunday.
Progress.
Several commentators are confusing the right to brew beer in brew pubs, and the right to buy beer anywhere
Beer is the cheapest imaginable thing to make. Probably 90% or more of the cost of beer is TAX, one way or another.
The reason for this is the belief that people are stupid and must be controlled. This belief is 100% wrong.
The truth is that SOME people are stupid, and CANNOT be controlled no matter what you do. Probably 5% of adults are like this. These people we call -criminals-. Everybody else controls themselves, if only because going to work the next morning with a raging hangover is painful. Government contributes exactly nothing to this dynamic.
If the government regulations on the making and sale of alcoholic beverages were all repealed tonight and we woke up to no rules on the subject, what do y’all think would change? Would there be blood in the streets? Would the smouldering ruins of our once great cities light the night sky with their radioactive glow?
-Nothing- would happen. Its all a titanic lie. We are the hugest suckers in the history of life.
“Out here in the Ottawa Valley, my local village convenience store is an LCBO/Beer Store “agency”.”
It doesn’t matter, it’s still an arm of the LCBO and the Brewer monopoly. The point is that we should be able to buy beer from anywhere we damn please, not some random agency.
However, I doubt it’s going to change. Despite the bleating of vote whore politicians, they will not get rid of the cash cow that is the LCBO, and the Beer Store monopoly doesn’t want people to buy beer anywhere than at their stores.
It’s for your own good. /sarcasm
The map does not paint a totally accurate picture of the Ont market; there are 230 communities where convenience stores are selling beer, wine and liquor under the Agency store program, See JJM above, also pointed out on the actual video. Not surprisingly this is not well known by Toronto media, as both McGuinty and Wynne have vowed no corner store sales, even as these outlets cheerfully do business. The program has been around since 1960s.
The reason for the Liberal silence is because their union friends are dead set against the private stores, Indeed they bargained last time for no further expansion, recently an OPSEU official even suggested the 230 stores were a “problem” that needed to be addressed later. That’s right in Ont convenience of the consumer is seen as a “problem” that must be contained.
I would prefer a to call it a “side topic” over ignorance. I personally didn’t think the discussion topic was too hard to understand.
Ezra and the Menzoid discussed exactly that in the video.
While that may be true for Costco (it is in WA state too, for that matter), other AB outlets are thoroughly unimpressive, and more expensive than BC. Its not an across the board difference as we wish to believe, and, throws a wrench into the theory that “private is always cheaper and more efficient”, which it should be, in practice.
Edmonton is every bit as expensive as Victoria, fwiw, save for house prices
If the determining factor is price then someone missed half of the equation. I can remember when the board stores kept nearly bankers hours and you were given the evil eye just for opening the door to the place. Last New Years Eve I went into a local store to buy some wine to toast in the New Year. The line up was huge snaking up and down the aisles. Everyone seemed in a good mood and then I realized the store clerks were walking up and down the line giving free samples.
Just checked some online flyers for same stores in AB and BC. AB was about 20% cheaper
Pretty much a universal trait to bring cash BC
at the boozers? Not on your life, walked out of Liquor Depot tonight in Redmonton, NOT buying beer because it was more expensive than BC LDB and 6 mile private store, go figure!
Notoriously cheap scotsman talking here….I know my prices, laddy!
Mind you booze was more expensive in Northern BC than Vancouver prior to the Liquor stores going in. I don’t have an issue with the stores or the employees who I find quite helpful. The Liquor distribution branch I do have a problem with and how they throttle the market.
If the government regulations on the making and sale of alcoholic beverages were all repealed tonight and we woke up to no rules on the subject, what do y’all think would change? … The Phantom
There would be even more more drunk drivers and more alcohol fueled domestic violence especially in the aboriginal communities. Russia is a good example of what Canada would be like with no alcohol control.
The Liquor Depot is the most expensive liquor store in the province by a massive margin, not sure exactly how they stay in business.
I personally will stock up at Superstore and the best beer vendor in Alberta, The Co-op liquor stores in Calgary.
Phantom said: “The truth is that SOME people are stupid, and CANNOT be controlled no matter what you do. Probably 5% of adults are like this.”
Obviously you have not been to Toronto or Ottawa where the average intellect rivals that of a Welsh carrot and self control/responsibility is something attributed only to the evil racist Bushitlerharper and his followers.
“There would be even more more drunk drivers and more alcohol fueled domestic violence especially in the aboriginal communities. Russia is a good example of what Canada would be like with no alcohol control. ”
Do you work for the state liquor monopoly (like the one they had in Russia that worked so well in stemming alcoholism)?
There’s no problem in Quebec, where beer is also cheaper as well as freely available. I pop over there regularly.
A few years back, Dad and I were returning to Alberta from Vancouver after purchasing a small inflatable fishing boat. We had decided to stay over in Kamloops but we’re thirsty for some suds by Abbotsford. Well we drove around that small burgh for 15 minutes trying to locate the ONLY liquor store in town.
Fast forward to crossing the B.C./Alberta border. When we pulled into Hinton (first town of any size) we laughed as the first two stores we saw were a liquor store and next door a gun store. God bless Alberta.
Although, if we don’t elect the WRA we could be following Ontario and B.C into the great regulatory hell.
From this site, worth the read: http://www.winelaw.ca/cms/index.php/legal-info-for-the-public/15/4-brief-history-of-bc-wine-a-liquor-laws
With the plethora of recent studies indicating that moderate consumption of wine is actually extremely good for you, one might think that we would, at the very least, have separated out wine from the control mentality on the rest of “liquor”. However, wine is still firmly lumped in with liquor on nearly all of BC’s laws.
The bureaucracy of control in the form of the LCB and LDB remains in place (although the LDB, the retail side, has obviously been transformed into a modern retail operation). However, on the government side, modernization of the structure and particularly the laws has been slow in coming. This is likely because control has given way to another rationale: revenue. While there would seem to be little public policy reason for the government to remain in the retail liquor business (given that there are now also private stores almost everywhere), the government now relies on the revenue which the LDB stores generate. The LDB now provides the government with over $800 million annually which goes into general revenue. This is separate and apart from the sales tax revenue that liquor generates. Any changes to the liquor system in BC will now have to face the daunting task of how to maintain that revenue or provide alternate compensation for it.
Tewchip
Read your comment and it got me thinking that you guys weren’t looking very hard. The reason is that a couple of years ago I was in Merrit, B.C., which is much smaller then Abbotsford and it had a gov’t liquor store, plus several private stores. Not only that you could buy offsale in some of the local hotel pubs.
BTW, I did a search and found five private alcohol retailers in Abbotsford.
It seems that Cape Breton Island is green and the rest of Nova Scotia is yellow. What gives?
I had a meal and some beers at a brew pub in Gilbert, Arizona last night. The food and the beer were both good. There are quite few such establishments here.
Alberta is pretty good for in-house breweries but I would love to see more. And it isn’t a government issue either, it is just whether owners are interested in doing it or not since selling your own beer in a your own licensed establishment is eh OK. The hard part happens when you want to get your product into liquor stores, and that is mainly due to high licensing fees that are established by the big mainstream breweries and the government.
I can totally see why the ad would be offensive to convenience store owners. I still get id’d for tobacco, and I am 40 years old.
Our towns convenience store sells gas, fuel, food, tobacco, lottery items and liquor. It is also are post office and ATB bank branch.
And it just isn’t beer in Alberta. No matter how hard you try, you cannot buy an alcoholic beverage from the government in Alberta. They still tax the heck out of it but you don’t end up paying $20 – 30 an hour with a gold plated pension for the slowest moving clerks on the planet.
this dates me , but I remember when you had to fill out the forms at the standup counter , take them to a slow clerk at the desk , get you order pushed on to a roller conveyor but another clerk doing the civil servant shuffle , carry it to the cashier for yet a third clerk , always under the watchful eye of a supervisor . all of this in Alberta , lots of time to be nervous while you were underage. lucky my family isn’t far from the trees , I was a hairy enough 17 year old that I never got asked and had to do the bolt for the door.
I was living up in Tumbler Ridge BC (now I’m in Texas, hows that for a change) the government liquor store went on strike for some reason (I think it was a public union province wide thing) of course the problem for these civil servants was that there was a private store on the other side of town (which is about 200 yards away). So no one cared.
Oh the hardship I had when I saw that the store near the post office was closed and I had to venture all the way over to near the gas station to get my brew…
TIL that the Beerstore is controled by the 3 big brewers, Im not surprised. They control the distribution in the US pretty strong as well. I can’t help but think what gets on the shelf in Ont would be impacted by the owners of the beer store. But I’m sure there is a civil servant looking out for the taxppayer to make sure they are getting access to the good stuff not brewed by the big 3.
I remember those roller conveyors cal2, going to the liquor store with my Dad in Wetaskiwin. He would buy a 6 pack of apple cider every once in awhile for something my brother and I could enjoy in very small quantities as kids.
I have always wondered what that apple cider was called, but it came the same brown stubbies as Molson did.
Yeah, the nanny Ontario laws and old boy’s network haven’t changed in the 40+ years since I was legal to imbibe. All the beer stores in my town haven’t changed at all. you still have to tell them what you want at the counter, the clerk still either calls to the back or goes there and sends it out on the rails. The liqueur store, although a monopoly, at least has moved into the 21st century. At one time you had to go to a counter, fill out a form and take it to the clerk who went into the back, had a coffee or something then came out front to hand it to you.
I wouldn’t really mind if they only allowed the selling of beer and wine at convenience stores and kept the hard stuff at the LCBO.
“I wouldn’t really mind if they only allowed the selling of beer and wine at convenience stores and kept the hard stuff at the LCBO.”
The irony of it all is that they are already selling booze in Ontario at “selected” convenience stores.
Out here in the Ottawa Valley, my local village convenience store is an LCBO/Beer Store “agency”. You can get beer, wine and a small selection of spirits (mostly mickeys) seven days a week.
It does a roaring trade as you can imagine. And no, the owner and staff do not wink and casually sell alcohol to the underaged.
I should have added that what I’ve described above about my village convenience store-cum-LCBO/Beer Store “agency” only makes that ad in the Sun “Beer Freedom” video appear all the more despicably hypocritical.
Going to Alberta from BC is a breath of fresh air. Costco Liquor! Land of milk and honey. Even though it is the store within a store model, much better pricing and selection than in BC. (BC which stands for “Bring Cash”)
The Costco in Las Vegas has them all beat to hell!
Joel in AB “I have always wondered what that apple cider was called, but it came the same brown stubbies as Molson did.”
Growers
Gosh almighty here comes my paranoia again. Why oh why has the old “should we have beer available from private retailers” reared it’s head again?
Couldn’t be part of the Liberal Party of Ontario/Canada flailing about and trying to confuse the issues; could it?
I mean old “blue nose” Ontario treating Citizens as if they are adults wouldn’t be another Lib-media effort to change talking points would it?
I mean there isn’t any bias in the Ontario/Toronto Urban centered media which spends more time drinking uncased malt beverages in little spaces instead of at back yard Bar-B-Q’s.
Just wondering where this all came from; Cheers;
Thank you. I didn’t realize Growers was around so long. I just figured the cider I grew up with went the way of the dodo bird.
remembering brown stubbies is bad enough , anyone remember the Heidelberg beer keg bottles ? they came out then everything reverted to long necks. pilsner in stubbies. uncle bens in stubbies during the beer strikes of 1976, 1977 and maybe 78, when they got all that settled half their market had reverted to yankee beer. uncle bens was so green you couldn’t see thru it .
I was also underage buying beer in Onanole Manitoba , impressed me because cold beer was offsales in the bar but hard liquor was sold where else ? the hardware store.
This reminds me that I have done some work in states
with “Official state alcohol stores.” I guess that
the only way to explain this is that government can
F-up everything it touches.
If they run it, regulate it, or tax it, the effect is the
same. You will pay more for it, and ultimately end up with
less supplies. Think the barren store shelves in the USSR
when collectivist policies devastated the most fertile
farm land in the Soviet Union: Ukraine.
Government stupidity is also causing hops farmers to divert
their crops. Government subsidies are causing them to plant
corn for Ethanol. Stupid people may vote themselves into slavery,
but when the lower classes see their beer prices being
affected, the Al Bundy’s of the world will revolt!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCZpGTEc7Mc
We watched the Dallas Buyers Club last week and maybe the thought of selling monthly memberships is the way out for Ontariominions. /sarc off
Gummint monopolies die hard – this one will spit hiss and scratch until the spike is driven through its heart – taking the booze rackets away from a kleptocracy is like trying to get a leech off an open artery.
I just enjoyed this post sipping on a new vented Molson Canadian Can that I picked up at the Irving on the highway on my way to my work apartment for the week here in NL. They stock the big two domestic stuff at every store, and have now even convinced the government to let them sell single cans of the 431ml variety at these convenience stores.
A km back the highway at the Esso is the “Liquor Express” where I could have stopped instead and got my favourite rum or even such exotic beer as Heineken or Sleeman’s or even Kilkenny. It would be purchased from a small business owner who I’m sure has to jump through a billion hoops for the privilege.
I remember the days of my youth slipping 6 packs of beer into paper bags the perfect size for them on Sunday at the local gas bar back when it was illegal to sell it. Of course at the time I was 16 and shouldn’t have been selling it regardless of the date. You can now legally decide in this province if you wish to consume beer purchased on a Sunday.
Progress.
Several commentators are confusing the right to brew beer in brew pubs, and the right to buy beer anywhere
Beer is the cheapest imaginable thing to make. Probably 90% or more of the cost of beer is TAX, one way or another.
The reason for this is the belief that people are stupid and must be controlled. This belief is 100% wrong.
The truth is that SOME people are stupid, and CANNOT be controlled no matter what you do. Probably 5% of adults are like this. These people we call -criminals-. Everybody else controls themselves, if only because going to work the next morning with a raging hangover is painful. Government contributes exactly nothing to this dynamic.
If the government regulations on the making and sale of alcoholic beverages were all repealed tonight and we woke up to no rules on the subject, what do y’all think would change? Would there be blood in the streets? Would the smouldering ruins of our once great cities light the night sky with their radioactive glow?
-Nothing- would happen. Its all a titanic lie. We are the hugest suckers in the history of life.
“Out here in the Ottawa Valley, my local village convenience store is an LCBO/Beer Store “agency”.”
It doesn’t matter, it’s still an arm of the LCBO and the Brewer monopoly. The point is that we should be able to buy beer from anywhere we damn please, not some random agency.
However, I doubt it’s going to change. Despite the bleating of vote whore politicians, they will not get rid of the cash cow that is the LCBO, and the Beer Store monopoly doesn’t want people to buy beer anywhere than at their stores.
It’s for your own good. /sarcasm
The map does not paint a totally accurate picture of the Ont market; there are 230 communities where convenience stores are selling beer, wine and liquor under the Agency store program, See JJM above, also pointed out on the actual video. Not surprisingly this is not well known by Toronto media, as both McGuinty and Wynne have vowed no corner store sales, even as these outlets cheerfully do business. The program has been around since 1960s.
The reason for the Liberal silence is because their union friends are dead set against the private stores, Indeed they bargained last time for no further expansion, recently an OPSEU official even suggested the 230 stores were a “problem” that needed to be addressed later. That’s right in Ont convenience of the consumer is seen as a “problem” that must be contained.
I would prefer a to call it a “side topic” over ignorance. I personally didn’t think the discussion topic was too hard to understand.
Ezra and the Menzoid discussed exactly that in the video.
While that may be true for Costco (it is in WA state too, for that matter), other AB outlets are thoroughly unimpressive, and more expensive than BC. Its not an across the board difference as we wish to believe, and, throws a wrench into the theory that “private is always cheaper and more efficient”, which it should be, in practice.
Edmonton is every bit as expensive as Victoria, fwiw, save for house prices
If the determining factor is price then someone missed half of the equation. I can remember when the board stores kept nearly bankers hours and you were given the evil eye just for opening the door to the place. Last New Years Eve I went into a local store to buy some wine to toast in the New Year. The line up was huge snaking up and down the aisles. Everyone seemed in a good mood and then I realized the store clerks were walking up and down the line giving free samples.
Just checked some online flyers for same stores in AB and BC. AB was about 20% cheaper
Pretty much a universal trait to bring cash BC
at the boozers? Not on your life, walked out of Liquor Depot tonight in Redmonton, NOT buying beer because it was more expensive than BC LDB and 6 mile private store, go figure!
Notoriously cheap scotsman talking here….I know my prices, laddy!
Mind you booze was more expensive in Northern BC than Vancouver prior to the Liquor stores going in. I don’t have an issue with the stores or the employees who I find quite helpful. The Liquor distribution branch I do have a problem with and how they throttle the market.
If the government regulations on the making and sale of alcoholic beverages were all repealed tonight and we woke up to no rules on the subject, what do y’all think would change? … The Phantom
There would be even more more drunk drivers and more alcohol fueled domestic violence especially in the aboriginal communities. Russia is a good example of what Canada would be like with no alcohol control.
The Liquor Depot is the most expensive liquor store in the province by a massive margin, not sure exactly how they stay in business.
I personally will stock up at Superstore and the best beer vendor in Alberta, The Co-op liquor stores in Calgary.
Phantom said: “The truth is that SOME people are stupid, and CANNOT be controlled no matter what you do. Probably 5% of adults are like this.”
Obviously you have not been to Toronto or Ottawa where the average intellect rivals that of a Welsh carrot and self control/responsibility is something attributed only to the evil racist Bushitlerharper and his followers.
“There would be even more more drunk drivers and more alcohol fueled domestic violence especially in the aboriginal communities. Russia is a good example of what Canada would be like with no alcohol control. ”
Do you work for the state liquor monopoly (like the one they had in Russia that worked so well in stemming alcoholism)?
There’s no problem in Quebec, where beer is also cheaper as well as freely available. I pop over there regularly.
A few years back, Dad and I were returning to Alberta from Vancouver after purchasing a small inflatable fishing boat. We had decided to stay over in Kamloops but we’re thirsty for some suds by Abbotsford. Well we drove around that small burgh for 15 minutes trying to locate the ONLY liquor store in town.
Fast forward to crossing the B.C./Alberta border. When we pulled into Hinton (first town of any size) we laughed as the first two stores we saw were a liquor store and next door a gun store. God bless Alberta.
Although, if we don’t elect the WRA we could be following Ontario and B.C into the great regulatory hell.
From this site, worth the read: http://www.winelaw.ca/cms/index.php/legal-info-for-the-public/15/4-brief-history-of-bc-wine-a-liquor-laws
With the plethora of recent studies indicating that moderate consumption of wine is actually extremely good for you, one might think that we would, at the very least, have separated out wine from the control mentality on the rest of “liquor”. However, wine is still firmly lumped in with liquor on nearly all of BC’s laws.
The bureaucracy of control in the form of the LCB and LDB remains in place (although the LDB, the retail side, has obviously been transformed into a modern retail operation). However, on the government side, modernization of the structure and particularly the laws has been slow in coming. This is likely because control has given way to another rationale: revenue. While there would seem to be little public policy reason for the government to remain in the retail liquor business (given that there are now also private stores almost everywhere), the government now relies on the revenue which the LDB stores generate. The LDB now provides the government with over $800 million annually which goes into general revenue. This is separate and apart from the sales tax revenue that liquor generates. Any changes to the liquor system in BC will now have to face the daunting task of how to maintain that revenue or provide alternate compensation for it.
Tewchip
Read your comment and it got me thinking that you guys weren’t looking very hard. The reason is that a couple of years ago I was in Merrit, B.C., which is much smaller then Abbotsford and it had a gov’t liquor store, plus several private stores. Not only that you could buy offsale in some of the local hotel pubs.
BTW, I did a search and found five private alcohol retailers in Abbotsford.