Alcohol retail expansion plan in Nova Scotia shelved for now

A review of expanding beer sales into N.S. grocery stores will be released next week.

Nova Scotia won’t be expanding alcohol sales into grocery or convenience stores anytime soon.

Premier Tim Houston told reporters Wednesday it’s just not a priority for his government at this time.

“It’s kind of been a never-ending discussion in this province,” said Houston. “People are talking about it all the time.”

That discussion ramped up last May, when the Houston government launched a review into how alcohol like wine and craft beer is bought and sold in the province.

The province held consultations with stakeholders in the alcohol industry and with those in other sectors like retail, and stakeholders in health and safety.

But Houston said feedback from the local beer and wine sector was mixed and so, for the time being, they won’t be entertaining any expansion of sales.

“It’s not unanimous inside those own organizations,” said Houston.

Finance Minister John Lohr said his department will release the review next week but echoed the premier’s concerns, suggesting hesitation from the industry called for a pause on any retail expansion right now.

“As the premier indicated other things have become priorities,” said Lohr.

When pressed by reporters on why government would complete a review if its not a priority, Lohr said it’s always important to hear from Nova Scotians.

“We were always concerned about protecting the local producers,” said Lohr. “And we heard from local producers in the review but also separately from the review, about their concerns in the changes of the format, so we’re taking those into account.”

Lohr said more than half of those he heard from in the wine and craft beer industry weren’t convinced that expanding sales outside of the current retail model would be good for them.

“It was a variety of things, distribution, shelf space,” said Lohr.

The government said they’ll release the alcohol sales reviews next week. The review into the expanding alcohol sales cost the government $300,000.

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