Small business federation urges Quebec to rein in SAQ’s retail expansion

A group representing small businesses says Quebec’s liquor board is unfairly competing with independent retailers, and it is calling on the province’s finance minister to stop it.

In a July 3 letter to Finance Minister Eric Girard, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) criticized the expansion of Zone SAQ mini-outlets, the government corporation’s push into non-alcoholic beverages as well as its exemption from Quebec’s bottle deposit system, which will include wine bottles starting in 2027.

“The retail sector is having a hard time right now. 2025 was a bad year,” François Vincent, the CFIB’s vice-president for Quebec, said in an interview with CTV News. “We sent a letter to the finance minister to say, ‘enough.’”

• READ MORE: Quebec wine sales booming, but drinking alcohol declines

The SAQ announced in January that it planned to open 92 Zone SAQ displays in grocery and convenience stores by summer, each offering between 30 and 40 products.

Vincent said the model lets the state monopoly decide which businesses get access to products their competitors are barred from selling.

“The SAQ is choosing the winners and the losers,” he said. “They have a monopoly. They should not choose to go into big retailers, big businesses, to sell their product.”

The federation points to its own survey data showing 72 per cent of small and medium-sized business owners believe private retailers should be allowed to sell the same alcoholic products as the SAQ.

“The solution is not to add tentacles to the state-owned corporation. It requires opening up the market and fairer competition,” Vincent said in a statement released Sunday.

The federation is also concerned about the incoming deposit system.

When wine and spirit bottles become refundable in 2027, roughly 200 million bottles a year will enter the system, according to the CFIB. The federation wants SAQ branches to be required to take back the bottles they sell, rather than leaving returns to Consignaction depots and private retailers.

“If people are tired of having all their bottles of juice to go to the Consignaction, brace yourself, because it’s going to be a nightmare in 2027,” Vincent said.

The letter asks the government to strip the SAQ of the right to sell non-alcoholic products, limit Zone SAQ development, boost the visibility of Quebec-made products in SAQ stores and open the market to private retailers.

“The best way to help the economy and to help the regions is to shop local,” Vincent said. “It’s not to have more monopoly and more state in the market of these businesses.”

- With files from CTV News Montreal’s Olivia O’Malley