Don't expect a proliferation of new outlets selling liquor in Delta, says Scott Hamilton.
The Liberal MLA for Delta North was asked for his take on potential changes to B.C.'s liquor laws, ones that could see alcohol sales in grocery stores.
That's one of 70 recommendations in a report submitted to the provincial justice minister by John Yap, the parliamentary secretary tasked with the review of liquor laws.
"It's being discussed in caucus and there's some good, open, honest debate going on. Some people have expressed concerns, but the important thing to keep in mind is there are no new net licences," said Hamilton.
"Basically, what you'd be looking at is the transfer of licences between existing licenced retail establishments and anyone else who wants to get into the business, so we're not going to be flooding the market with new licences," he said.
Yap said there was more interest in allowing booze in grocery stores than any other aspect of liquor reform during his public consultations. He noted the number of retail outlets selling liquor in B.C. would remain capped at 731.
7-Eleven has expressed interest in selling liquor, but Yap has stated corner or convenience stores wouldn't be allowed to sell alcohol.
If allowed in grocery stores, one model that could help alleviate concern is the "store within a store" model.
"How this could work would be private liquor stores and/or B.C. government liquor stores operating under the same roof as a grocery store, but with separate staff and cashiers. This could help address concerns I've heard about whether minors would have easier access to liquor if it were available down the grocery aisles," Yap explained on a blog posting.
Saying he's in favour of those stipulations, Hamilton reiterated Deltans shouldn't expect to see any significant increase in the number of locations to buy booze.
He noted there are concerns by existing beer and wine retailers about the impacts of increased competition, but the "one kilometre rule" of spacing liquor sales establishments won't change.
"If you see the recommendations, you'll see that it's not whole lot of new stuff, other than creating a different level of accessibility. With that, we have to have certain rules around maintaining a certain discretion when comes to access to minors. Hopefully
we'll have more fulsome debate on the issue in the coming weeks," he added.
Premier Christy Clark recently made headlines by stating her government's support for liquor laws changes, including allowing children to enter pubs and allowing happy hour offerings.
The government says its goal is to introduce legislation in 2014.
