On October 24th, BC elected a new majority Conservative government. The new MLAs are expected to be sworn in on November 19, with Ministers appointed the following day. At this point it is unclear what, if any, liquor policy reforms the new government will consider. However, broadly the government has committed to focusing on economic growth.
In this regard, here are two relatively easy liquor policy reforms that could constitute ‘quick wins’ for a new government.
1. Allow Secondary Tasting Rooms for Local Manufacturers
Current BC liquor law only permits local manufacturers to operate a single tasting room at their production facility. Many jurisdictions permit one or more additional tasting rooms located elsewhere, as part of their manufacturing license. Wineries can opt in or opt out as they please. But the change would provide flexibility for manufacturers to locate a tasting room closer to an urban marketplace or to locate in a small town near the winery.
Secondary tasting rooms have proved to be extremely successful in many places like Walla Walla, WA and Healdsburg, CA where they have provided immediate economic impact and local growth. In 2013/2014, the B.C. government announced that they were going to allow this as part of John Yap’s liquor policy review. However, for no apparent reason, there has been no progress on this to date and wineries remain unable to operate even a single off-site tasting location.
2. Allow Direct Delivery of Non-Stocked Product from Storage Warehouses
It makes no sense that all imported wine and spirits has to be transferred from storage warehouses to a government distribution warehouse before it is shipped again to its destination (e.g. retailer, restaurant). Because of this outdated requirement, it can take 2 weeks to move a case of wine from Richmond to Downtown Vancouver with tremendous inefficiency and negative environmental effects from unnecessary transport.
This issue was the subject of Recommendation #1 in the BTAP report that I authored on behalf of industry in 2018. It has not been implemented, apparently due to opposition from the BCGEU. However, it is long past the time to override these objections as the practical result of the change would make no difference to union employment and would provide the entire hospitality industry with improved efficiency and service.
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Neither of these changes would have any up-front cost to government … and both would spur economic growth. In addition, they would constitute balanced change … something for local industry as well as for the broader retail and hospitality sectors. There are more significant changes that could be made (see my previous article: Reimagining Canada’s Liquor Monopolies) which would take longer and require more work. But these two are easy … and both are long overdue.