Attorney General Suzanne Anton, whose portfolio includes liquor sales and regulation, said July 23 in a budget hearing at the Legislature that the Liquor Distribution Branch's Vancouver warehouse will be sold this fall.
"There is due diligence going on, on the Broadway site to establish what the expected value is for the proposed sale," Anton said under questioning from NDP critic Shane Simpson. "It will go up for sale in the fall of this year, after the due diligence process is completed."
The Vancouver Distribution Centre, on land at 3150 East Broadway that was assessed at $29.77 million, also includes the head office, the company's flagship retail outlet, security control centre, data centre, test laboratory, support and training facilities, cafeteria, fitness centre and daycare.
LDB is searching for a supply chain and logistics management expert to advise on where to move and whether LDB should lease or buy a new warehouse. The consultant was supposed to have been chosen by July 15. Anton said it is expected an internal shortlist will be drawn-up "30 days after the first of August." The shortlist, she said, would not be made public.
Anton talked about multiple government reviews that will affect LDB and the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch.
Anton said that "it remains to be seen how liquor will fit into" the core review, which is under the auspices of Minister Bill Bennett.
Anton is exploring the possible transformation of LDB into a Crown corporation with an appointed board of directors. All other provinces and territories have a Crown corporation involved in liquor distribution. She said there will be no public consultation on LDB governance.
"This is a decision about government structure," Anton said. "The discussions are at the officials' level."
A moratorium is in place until 2022 on the expansion of private stores. The B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union contract, which expires March 31, 2014, contains a no-privatization of LDB clause. The B.C. government claimed the contract, reached on September 27, 2012, was the reason for scuttling the privatization of LDB warehousing and distribution, two business days before the four shortlisted bidders were supposed to submit final proposals.
Anton said her Parliamentary Secretary, John Yap, will be conducting "a broad consultation with members of the public, with stakeholders, with industry" this fall on the modernization of liquor sales and regulation in B.C.
Yap was forced to resign from cabinet in March amid the ethnic-vote scandal, but was re-elected in May in Richmond-Steveston. He used private email to avoid Freedom of Information while communicating with aides who were contravening public sector rules that forbid political work on government time.
"We have different values now, probably, than when the liquor legislation was first passed, after prohibition," Anton said in the hearing. "That has been creaking away over the years. So it's time to look at it, to have a broad look at it."
Anton conceded that issues of use and misuse of alcohol that will be considered, but hinted that the emphasis of the review will be on liquor sales.
"I would like to emphasize that this is a pretty broad consultation: We'll examine the relationship between consumers and the businesses, between the businesses and the rules that they operate under, between the manufacturers and the rules they operate under," Anton said.
"The regulatory framework is old and does need to be looked at, so it will be, as I said, a broad-based consultation with the ability to look broadly at the whole regulatory structure of the industry and the consumption of alcohol."
