A seemingly arbitrary BC Liquor Control and Licensing Branch (LCLB) policy is causing major business losses and threats of $100,000 fines for caterers.
It’s also inconveniencing many event hosts during the hectic upcoming festive season.
The LCLB’s policy requires event organizers and others who host catered parties to independently buy and transport any alcohol they plan to pour at their event. They must also get an LCLB special occasion licence on their own.
Caterers are prohibited from buying beer, wine or spirits for their customers even if they charge only enough to recoup their costs. Nor may they get special occasion event licences on their clients’ behalf.
LCLB assistant deputy minister and general manager Karen Ayers has written letters to caterers warning them that flouting LCLB policies could result in a $100,000 fine.
“We have lost some catering jobs because of it,” Culinary Capers Catering owner Debra Lykkemark told Business in Vancouver.
“Clients would just as soon go to a hotel or a restaurant or some place where they don’t have to deal with the hassle of picking up liquor.”
MVKA Productions event planner Tony Talarico said all of his clients who have booked Christmas parties have chosen established hotels or restaurants as the location.
“[The LCLB policy] is a factor in venue selection,” he said. “It’s an inconvenience for my clients to have to go to a liquor store and … obtain a special occasion licence. That’s especially difficult for an out-of-town client.”
MVKA often organizes large events for American clients, who are not legally eligible to apply for a special occasion licence unless they get special permission.
They have to go to a B.C. liquor store and ask the manager for permission to get the licence. Then they have to buy the alcohol at the BCLC outlet, transport it to their event and then return any left over alcohol to the same store.
Ayers said caterers aren’t allowed to buy and deliver alcohol on behalf of their customers because their primary business is not transporting goods or people.
The BCLC’s policy manual notes that one exception to the policy that event hosts must buy and transport their own liquor is for delivery services.
“A delivery service is a business primarily engaged in the transportation of people or goods,” the policy manual states.
Strangely, it then notes an exemption for flower shops and those that provide gift baskets or hampers .
“To me, that causes a bit of a problem,” said Mark Hicken, who practises law at Vintage Law Group.
“Flower shops are not in the business of delivering people or things. They’re primarily in the business of selling flowers and making flower arrangements.”
Hicken said a bigger problem with the LCLB’s restrictive policy is that it has no basis in law. The policy manual defines what a delivery service is but the Liquor Control and Licensing Act does not.
“The policy manual is supposed to implement the statutes and the regulations,” Hicken said. “It’s not supposed to be independent of the statutes and regulations. The actual statutory provision that governs liquor delivery services simply says that a delivery service may deliver liquor.”
The result is that there’s no need for legislators in Victoria to change any laws. Hicken said change could simply come if LCLB executives decide to delete a few words from their policy manual.
The Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General’s position says the words “delivery service” in the act refer to a service that has transportation of goods as a primary business focus even though there’s no definition in the act that specifically says that. Therefore, it says, the act does need to be changed..