Changes impacting the liquor store operations in Battleford and selected other communities in the Northwest won’t happen immediately.
Don McMorris, minister responsible for the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority, confirms the changes won’t come in until after the next election. While he expects the changes to be introduced soon after the election, it will still take a number of months after that for the requests for proposals to be submitted and approved and new private liquor stores opened.
Forty existing government liquor stores are being converted “to private delivery instead of having it government run. It will be private delivery over an RFP process, and ensure that the service is still in the community but run by a private deliverer,” McMorris told the News-Optimist.
Those include Battleford, Wilkie, Unity and St. Walburg locations, among others. In addition, McMorris said that due to population growth there is “definitely a demand” for 12 new stores in a number of underserved communities such as White City, Pilot Butte, Dalmeny and Osler. That brings the total number to 52.
McMorris spoke by phone with the News-Optimistabout the changes Friday and was able to clear up a number of questions about what will happen with the Battleford liquor store and what the RFP process will entail.
What will happen is “after the next election, a request for proposal will be issued,” said McMorris.
The successful bidder “then has the opportunity to open the store. They can open it at the same location if they want to purchase the building, if we own it, or they can start it in a new building.”
As well, they’ll get a full selection, said McMorris. He also said many liquor rules and regulations are being rolled back regarding the type and temperature of the liquor being sold.
“All liquor retailers will be given the same opportunity on a level playing field, and so that is certainly what will happen in Battleford.”
McMorris also addressed the immediate future of the local Battleford liquor store. McMorris confirmed Battleford and the other locations will remain open through the RFP process.
Existing employees will be welcome to make a bid for the RFP and “we give them preferential treatment through the RFP process,” McMorris stated.
Another concern is what might happen if there are no bidders.
“We’ve never had that problem before,” said McMorris, noting they were able to convert stores successfully in Ituna, Langenberg, Pontiex and Kerrobert last year.
“We certainly didn’t have any trouble finding people to take them over through the RFP process.”
But even if there are no bidders, “we would keep the government store going. We wouldn’t take service away from a community,” said McMorris.
McMorris also spoke of how the province’s changes would mean more price competitiveness.
“All liquor retailers across the province whether it is an off sale, whether it’s a vendor, whether it is a public store or private stores, will all again be operating on the same licence and be purchasing the alcohol at all the same wholesale price. Right now there’s many different categories and tiers and discounts. We’re getting rid of all that and just doing one wholesale price.
“So … the government brings the alcohol in, we’ll mark it up, that’s where we make our profit. The retailers then will mark it up themselves. They can mark it up 10 per cent, 15 per cent, whatever they want to mark it up. That’s the competitive piece that will be put into the system that really isn’t there right now.”
The changes are a long time in the making. The consultation process started a year ago, said McMorris. He said about 6,600 people filled out a survey online and more than 3,000 wrote submissions.
“It really is driven by consumers, what consumers want to see as far as retailing across the province,” McMorris said.
“Consumers wanted more choice, they wanted better convenience, store hours, that type of thing,” said McMorris.
McMorris also addressed the NDP opposition’s demands to maintain the hybrid system currently in place. He said what the government is trying to do is “clear up 70 years of old policy and regulation that is really quite dated.”
“What we’re really looking at doing is more modernizing, modernizing the system. The NDP want to keep it the way it was and have government employees selling alcohol. We think the private sector can do it just as well.”
