The Throne speech said the provincial government would not invest another dollar in building government owned liquor stores and now the province is inviting public input on how liquor should be sold in Saskatchewan.
The minister responsible for the liquor and gaming authority Don McMorris has unveiled five options – everything from increasing the government’s role to turning everything over to the private sector.
He says the public’s input will help the Sask Party government formulate its position on liquor sales before the next provincial election.
McMorris says he expects a lot of feedback from both the public and stakeholders.
“Organizations like SADD and MADD I’m sure will be weighing in,” he says. “So we will be taking all that input and posting it on the website so everybody can see what the hotels’ association is saying, what the franchisees’ association is saying. I think that is extremely important that this is as transparent as it possibly can be.”
The NDP opposition is calling the whole process a diversion saying there are more important things to talk about such as health care and overcrowded schools.
As for the options on liquor sales being considered, MLA Cathy Sproule says the current system is working fine, although the party would like to see some modernization of government stores.
“One of the things we are talking about is a sixth option, where we would have the hybrid system we currently have, it’s making sense but what we need to do is modernize SLGA,” she says. “We would like to see more flexible hours, a better pricing system, maybe even a grocery store kiosk run by SLGA. I think that would be a really interesting modernization.”
The five options on the table include leaving things as they are, increasing the number of private stores, going fully private, gradually going fully private or expanding government liquor stores.
Right now there are 75 government run liquor stores in the province, three fully private full line stores with a fourth opening this spring and nearly 200 franchises operating in rural Saskatchewan.
People can go to the SLGA website to express their opinions.
The consultation process will run until Jan. 30, 2015.
The website is www.saskatchewan.ca/liquorretail.