Watch the video above: Provincial liquor plan
REGINA – The Province of Saskatchewan currently has five different options on the table for the future of liquor sales.
“There are a lot of opinions about how we should sell liquor,” said Don McMorris, Minister responsible for the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority.
“This consultation process will let us hear directly from the public and key stakeholders about what they would like to see when it comes to liquor retailing in Saskatchewan.”
The comprehensive consultation process provides a history of the Province’s liquor retail system and a look at how some neighbouring provinces operate.
The five options for people to consider are:
- Maintaining the current system;
- An expanded private retail system;
- Alberta-style fully private retail system;
- Managed transition to fully private system; and
- An expanded government retail system
“These are the five broad models we would like the public to consider, recognizing that there are a lot of different delivery options within each model,” McMorris said.
The consultation website will give people a complete overview of the five options.
“We know we’re going to need some more new stores to help meet future demand and we also know we have some existing stores that will need investments in the future,” McMorris said.
“Before we decide how to proceed, we want to hear what customers, stakeholders and the general public have to say.”
The province’s liquor retail system currently consists of 75 government liquor stores, around 190 franchises operating in private business in rural Saskatchewan, 450 off-sale outlets, and three full-line liquor stores (a fourth is set to open in Regina next spring).
The consultation process runs until January 30, 2015.
Comments