"In my lifetime--I'm 52--will I ever see wine or beer for sale in grocery stores?" Premier Brad Wall was asked recently on a radio call-in show. "No" was the answer. Wall will stick to his election promise to keep the crowns in public hands. This means the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA) will continue its wholesale and retail operations. Even so, Wall acknowledged this mandate still leaves plenty of room for change, and he was all ears for suggestions.
Hopefully, the government will give more than a passing glance to recent proposals from the Saskatchewan Hotel and Hospitality Association (SHHA). Earlier this year they submitted a paper that was "not calling for the privatization of either the wholesale or retail side of beverage alcohol sales, but simply a level playing field in which it can fairly compete."
Currently, all off-sale vendors and restaurants have to buy liquor at retail prices, just as any customer would at an SLGA store. This ensures the SLGA stores always have the best price, while other retailers get accused of gouging. The only break private retailers get is a rebate from SLGA on packaged beer. But, in a bizarre twist, the rebate is inversely proportionate to the amount sold during the year. In other words, the more alcohol a retailer sells, the less they are rebated per case. Occasionally this means an off-sale outlet actually tries to reduce sales at year's end just to avoid a lower government rebate.
Meanwhile, these outlets must also charge a 10 percent liquor consumption tax on the alcohol sold, even though it was originally bought at retail prices from the government itself!
All the SHHA is asking for is fairness. Let all retailers, whether public or private, acquire liquor from the government for the same wholesale price. And let the SLGA's wholesale, retail, and regulatory operations to be separate and transparent. That way taxpayers know if they are getting their money's worth.
"Is there the opportunity for some specialty stores?" Wall asked rhetorically on the radio. "We haven't heard a great request for this yet, but we also want to be responsive to requests like that should they come."
Someone, please, ask. Nova Scotia is already five years ahead. In 2003, private specialty wine stores got the chance to open up, and have become a phenomenal success. They order products through the government wholesaler at a price 30 percent below the full mark-up value. Selection for consumers has vastly improved, business has boomed, and government revenues have grown.
Publicly-owned outlets have opened within some Nova Scotia grocery stores, and, ironically, this might be happening somewhere in Saskatchewan already. The province has given almost 200 special vendors the authority to sell liquor in rural areas where the SLGA has no store of its own. For doing the government's work-which apparently is selling alcohol-vendors are paid a sales commission for spirits, wine, and coolers.
Wall acknowledged these vendors are as diverse as insurance agencies and auto parts stores. This is the bizarre evolution of a province that imposed prohibition in 1915, created a Crown monopoly, and now lets anyone sell hooch so long as the government gets a piece of the action. To say this lunacy needs change is an understatement.
--Lee Harding, Saskatchewan Director
