VICTORIA – New Democrats pledged to establish a formal B.C. Ministry for Liquor Announcements should they win the 2017 election.

“If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the B.C. Liberals, it’s that there’s nothing like a liquor announcement to distract from important problems that plague the Christy Clark government,” said New Democrat spokesperson on liquor David Eby. “Whenever a story of some shady practice within the Christy Clark government comes to light on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, you can bet there’s going to be a liquor announcement on a Friday.

“So we thought we would simply formalize the ongoing and constant liquor announcements into a ministry,” said Eby.

Eby said the Ministry will be fully staffed like all ministries, but with just communications staff. The deputy minister will have to be an expert in live-streaming and expensive event planning.

“The best part is, there won’t be an increase to the overall provincial budget. The money is already being spent on constant liquor announcements,” said Eby. “In fact that file is already more active than most ministries within Christy Clark’s government, like agriculture and education.

“We would just make it official.”

Eby said the ministry could be up and running as soon as April Fools Day, 2018.