Perhaps heeding Premier Kathleen Wynne's call for a more rational approach to liquor sales, the Ontario Convenience Store Association is hoping a newly released poll will help sway the province into allowing beer sales at specially licensed private retailers – as an alternative to The Beer Store.

The advocacy poll, conducted by Abacus Data, sampled 1,500 Ontarians 19 and over in January and found more than 70 per cent of respondents supported selling beer in "LCBO Beer Agency Stores."

The poll is part of the retail group's lobbying campaign for more liberalized liquor and beer distribution regulations in the province. Wynne has said she supports fairer distribution rules and the provincial budget this spring could unveil policy changes.

"Among private retailers, no one in Ontario knows more about selling beer responsibly than convenience stores. Ontarians of all political stripes support the Government of Ontario modernizing beer retailing through an expanded partnership with convenience and grocery stores," said OCSA CEO Dave Bryans, in a statement Thursday.

"The foreign beer monopoly needs to have competition under a system that actually benefits Ontarians."

According to the association's proposal, large chain, private retailers such as grocery and convenience stores would be permitted to sell liquor and beer on behalf of the LCBO.

The store group says the move would result in increased revenues for the LCBO (and ostensibly fatten the bottom line of its 69,000 members). The LCBO currently provides $1.7 billion annually in dividends to the government from alcohol sales, mainly from provincially set retail markups on beer, wine and spirits.

The addition of more agency stores would likely increase the LCBO's profits, says the OCSA, since it would drive sales away from the privately owned Beer Store, which accounts for 80 per cent of all beer sales in the province.

The OCSA also said its members would allocate 30 per cent of shelf space for craft brewers, who have long complained about the high upfront costs of being listed in The Beer Store, an 88-year-old company owned by the province's major brewers.

The LCBO already operates 219 similar agency stores in the province, mainly in rural communities that are too small to support an LCBO or Beer Store.

Unsurprisingly, the OCSA's endorsement of the Agency Store model runs counter to the interest of public-sector union OPSEU, which represents roughly 7,000 LCBO employees, and that of The Beer Store.

Last October, OPSEU president Warren "Smokey" Thomas said that roughly 100 current agency stores should be repatriated to account for growing populations that could now support standalone stores (and employ OPSEU members).

The Beer Store has long fought to preserve its hold on beer sales in the province which currently stands at about 80 per cent.

It has engaged in lengthy public-relations campaigns saying convenience store sales would lead to more underage drinking and more expensive beer.

However, renewed scrutiny over The Beer Store's near monopoly of beer sales has it scrambling to curry favour with both the public and the provincial government.

But while all three stakeholders continue their prolonged public-relations battle, the prospect of deregulated liquor sales will ultimately hinge on recommendations coming forward from the premier’s Advisory Council on Government Assets – chaired by former TD Bank CEO Ed Clark.

The final report from Clark’s panel will be released as part of the spring budget. Clark and the council have already recommended letting the LCBO sell 12-packs of beer (currently the exclusive right of The Beer Store) as well as several other suggestions.

Until then, all previous modernization efforts — including Finance Minister Charles Sousa's express liquor kiosk pilot program announced last April — have been put on hold until the updated provincial budget is released this spring.

Corner store group’s call for ‘LCBO Beer Agency Stores’ at odds with Beer Store, OPSEU

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