Guy walks into the Denman Island General Store and Post Office one day at 8:30 in the morning. (Stop me if you’ve heard this one.)
Asks for a bottle of red wine.
Proprietor says no can do. Government regulations prohibit the rural agency liquor-store component of that enterprise from selling anything until 9 a.m.
Store opens at 8 a.m. But early birds getting a jump on their picnic or dinner-party planning have to wait until 9 a.m. to close the deal on a bottle of wine.
As told by Daryl McLoughlin, who describes himself as “Manager-Post Master-Propane Tank-Filler-Chief Economist,” the customer responded with: “I’m from France, and if this was France, there would be a revolution.”
Heading off the latent revolutionary tendencies of the countless people who feel aggrieved by B.C.’s liquor policies is one of the jobs Liberal MLA John Yap has as he continues to collect input for the liquor review.
There are two more weeks left for people to vent, but Yap already has countless suggestions. McLoughlin’s ideas about placating irate Frenchmen and other topics sound fairly common sense.
His store, “located in the heart of downtown Denman Island,” can sell cigarettes any time he wants. It seems inconsistent to him that cigarette sales are wide open but liquor sales are restricted, given that they are both harmful.
Beer and wine sales are a sideline at the general store and space is limited. So they can place a 50-case minimum order once a week from the supplier.
If they don’t need 50, they can order up to 20 from the Liquor Distribution Branch. But there’s almost no leeway between those two numbers.
The only workaround is to order non-B.C. beers, which McLoughlin said the regulations seem to be encouraging them to do. He wants rural agency stores to be allowed to order up to 49 dozen B.C. beers from the LDB.
Some other random stories from the submission files of the liquor-policy review:
• Burrowing Owl Vineyards, near Oliver, is one of those remarkably inviting wineries in the south Okanagan, started by Jim Wyse and a small group of investors 20 years ago. As the years pass, some of the investors have died, or sold their interests. It’s always to other investors, or back to the company, which was stipulated when the company was set up. Every time that happens, Burrowing Owl has to pay $110 to the government, plus lawyers’ fees. It’s because every change in share ownership requires the filing of a report, which entails fees. The government originally wanted a mechanism to keep an eye on who was buying into the industry.
But the changes at that winery have never involved new owners being brought in.
“This is extremely time-consuming for both sides and frankly serves no useful purpose whatsoever.”
Wyse wants one word added to the rules. The reports when a shareholder changes should be required only for “new” shareholders.
• The Vancouver Canucks want to be able to pour more beer. The rules put a 24-ounce maximum on single servings (or two 12-ounce servings) that sell at Rogers Arena for $7.75 minimum. (You could clone another Sedin just on their liquor sales.) But beer sales are concentrated during intermissions, which means long lineups and congestion in the concourse.
The pouring restrictions create an inability for a single fan to purchase a pint of beer for themselves and a guest. Not only that, but Alberta and Ontario hockey rinks have no maximums.
They also want to sell hard liquor in the stands, like they do in most other arenas, and allow hawkers to sell beer on the concourse, not just the stands.
The club says larger serving sizes — two full pints, up to 40 ounces per person — would ease congestion, reduce the amount of plastic and, presumably, allow them to beef up the third line.
Just So You Know: Dates got confused in Tuesday’s column. John Kerry lost the 2004 presidential election, not the 2008 contest.
