Off-sales of alcohol in Creighton could be moving outside the control of the provincial government.
Saskatchewan is considering five options for the province’s liquor retail system, ranging from the status quo to a fully private structure.
“There are a lot of opinions about how we should sell liquor,” Don McMorris, the minister responsible for the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority, said in a press release.
Though any change could impact the government-run Creighton Liquor Store, Creighton town council had not taken a position on the matter as of Monday.
But the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees’ Union, which represents liquor store employees, opposes privatization.
Donna Christianson, chair of the union’s Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority negotiating committee, said maintaining public ownership – and profits – is the best approach.
She said the Creighton Liquor Store and Saskatchewan’s 74 other government-run liquor stores are profitable, helping the province fund infrastructure like highways and services like health care.
If those profits are lost, taxpayers will have to make up the difference, Christianson said.
She also doubts that a private system would mean cheaper alcohol, saying even the province has acknowledged prices likely won’t decrease.
“Up in Creighton, where there isn’t a lot of competition, I would expect that the prices [would] go up,” Christianson said in a phone interview.
More choice?
But supporters of privatization argue the government has no business in the liquor business and that privatizing liquor stores would mean more choice and additional tax revenue through increased alcohol sales.
Premier Brad Wall has already announced that any new liquor stores opening in Saskatchewan will be private, though his government will not sell off its existing stores without a strong mandate from the public, according to CBC.
On its website, the province is now seeking public input on five options for the liquor retail system, including:
• maintaining the current system;
• an expanded private retail system;
• an Alberta-style fully private retail system;
• a managed transition to fully private system; or
• an expanded government retail system
McMorris said more stores will be needed to meet future demand while some existing stores will require investments.
“Before we decide how to proceed, we want to hear what customers, stakeholders and the general public have to say,” he said in the release.
Christianson has many questions around what the province’s proposals may mean.
“Are they planning to convert our small-town stores to franchises, or are they planning to open it up where anybody can run a liquor store?” she asked rhetorically. “What does that mean?”
The province’s liquor retail system now consists of 75 government stores, about 190 franchises operating in private businesses in rural Saskatchewan, 450 off-sale outlets and three private full-line liquor stores.
The province’s consultation process runs until Jan. 30, 2015.
The Creighton Liquor Store employs six people.
Public sentiment
Where does the Saskatchewan public stand on the issue of liquor store privatization?
According to a mid-2014 online poll conducted by InSightrix Research, the results of which were reported by CBC, 26 per cent of respondents said liquor stores should not be privately owned at all.
Another 23 per cent felt that all liquor stores, both existing and new, should be privatized.
But the biggest percentage of respondents, 34 per cent, supported the province’s current approach of maintaining ownership over current public stores while privatizing new stores.
Not surprisingly, supporters of the NDP were most likely to support public ownership of stores while backers of the Saskatchewan Party were more likely to favour privatization.
