The bigger picture:
Every year, the BC Chamber develop policies that address challenges faced by BC businesses. Through this grassroots policy process, the membership endorses approximately 70 new policies every year at BC Chamber Annual Meeting. Many of these policies address challenges most BC businesses face. For our members to read the complete manual of polices can be an overwhelming task and definitely not bedtime reading therefore, in this column we are going to share each week a policy that is of importance for businesses and the actions being requested from the governing bodies.
LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD FOR LIQUOR DISTRIBUTION IN BC (2020)
The Province holds a monopoly of the distribution, warehousing and price of liquor sales in the province. The Liquor Distribution Act gives the LDB the sole right to buy alcohol, either imported or produced in BC; and also, the LDB has the sole right to distribute that alcohol within the province.3 The LDB is responsible for retail sales from all Government Liquor Stores (GLS) and sales to private liquor stores, restaurants and bars. However, some licensees must still buy alcohol from a GLS branch at retail4 yet private liquor stores get a 16% discount when they purchase from the LDB.5 Only the government actually buys wholesale from producers in BC or abroad. To continue reading:
