The provincial government will remove fences around beer gardens at festivals, allow happy hours in bars by summer and permit liquor sales in grocery stores next year.
Justice Minister Suzanne Anton introduced legislation that lays the groundwork for sweeping changes to British Columbia’s liquor laws.
She outlined a two-part model for liquor sales in grocery stores. The first will allow a “store-within-a-store” model to sell beer, wine and liquor through separate cashiers within a grocery store.
The second part will allow the sale of B.C.-made beer and wine on grocery store shelves.
Anton said the government will continue a moratorium on the number of private liquor stores, but there will be a limited number of new Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) licences to sell premium B.C. wine.
She also announced that B.C. will move to wholesale pricing of liquor that all retailers — including government stores — will pay the same price for booze.
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