Vernon City Council voted not to implement a one-kilometre separation regulation at this time as requested by the Alliance of Beverage Licensees (ABLE BC) at the Regular Open Meeting August 15. At the meeting, ABLE BC requested that Council establish the regulation for any future beverage alcohol retailers in Vernon in response to the Province enacting the Special Wine Store License Act (Bill 22 and associated regulations).
Council considered a range of issues related to the request, including impacts on consumer choice, unnecessary regulations impacting private business, separation of provincial and local responsibilities, possible impacts of creating non-conforming situations for existing stores and concern about creating a precedent for having separation distances for other uses in the zoning bylaw.
The Provincial government is the governing authority for sale of alcoholic beverages and has a regulatory regime in place for applicants. To be eligible for a special wine store, a grocery store must be a minimum of 929 square meters (10,000 square feet), sell a wide selection of food, accounting for at least 70 per cent of sales and have appropriately trained adult cashiers. The process established by the Province for all liquor applications serves to balance the interests of the applicants with those of the residents of the Province. Where warranted, feedback from local governments is provided as part of the Provincial review process.