VICTORIA, BC – Two months after Parliamentary Secretary John Yap delivered his B.C. Liquor Policy Review report to Justice Minister Suzanne Anton, the British Columbia provincial government has announced that it supports all 73 recommendations in the report, and intends to start implementing some of them in the next few months.
Changes that are expected to be made soon include: doing away with cordoned off beer gardens at festivals and allowing attendees of legal age to carry beer throughout the grounds; permitting hotel guests to carry beer and other alcoholic beverages from the hotel bar to their room; and allowing children into pubs that are currently limited to customers of legal drinking age.
One change that will take longer to implement will be allowing alcohol sales at grocery stores. In an interview with the Vancouver Sun, Minister Anton said that more details will need to be worked out, but that government is leaning towards a “store-within-a-store” model.
For more details, see John Yap’s full B.C. Liquor Policy Review report on the B.C. Government website.