Bars and restaurants give Saskatchewan ‘C-’ for liquor policies

While bartenders in Saskatoon are busy shaking up drinks, some in the industry are a little stirred about the rules surrounding alcohol service in restaurants and bars.

Taste Restaurant Group is all too familiar with red tape and the costs to bring down the price of a pint or glass of wine.

“We’re paying for them to be shipped, say, from Europe to Alberta. Then we’re paying for them to be stored in Alberta. We’re paying for them to be shipped from Alberta to Saskatchewan, to be stored in Saskatchewan and then to be brought to us,” said Taste Restaurant Group co-owner Carmen Hamm said.

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“Everybody has their hand in the pot all along the way.”

This week’s report card from Restaurants Canada gives the Saskatchewan government a C- for its performance on liquor policies, ranking among the bottom four provinces and with no change in grade from its last report two years ago.

According to Restaurants Canada, one of the biggest issues is that bars and restaurants do not have access to wholesale prices.

“It’s tough enough to attract customers in a tough economic climate into your establishment, but when the government is making your cost of goods a lot more expensive, it makes it a lot more difficult to provide good value for our customers,” said Mark von Schellwitz, the regional vice-president of Restaurants Canada.

Restaurants and bars only receive volume discounts and those can vary depending on which retailer they purchase from.

The Saskatchewan government said rules around a wholesale model are consistent with most across the country. It said wholesale pricing only applies to liquor retailers.

Only businesses in Alberta and P.E.I. have open access to wholesale prices.

“To be able to have more competitive pricing and to have wholesale pricing that allows us to be able to have the markup that we need to have to keep our businesses open, but also to be able to offer a price on our menus that is incentive for people to want to go out and consume products,” Hamm said.

The report also measured how restaurants are feeling since the last report card two years ago.

More than 60 per cent responded by saying liquor policies are worse.