VANCOUVER – The B.C. Liberals’ wholesale pricing model for liquor would have seen many in the province paying more for premium wine as of April 1 – but after an outcry from British Columbians, restaurant owners, and small business owners, they have been forced to scale back the proposed tax hike.

“We’re almost at daily liquor announcements from the B.C. Liberals, first introducing new policies, and then retracting them. From happy hour to wholesale pricing, why are they ignoring the consultation process they participated in with the public, and instead making arbitrary and poorly planned changes that hurt small businesses, restaurant owners, and people who like a drink at the end of the week?” said David Eby, New Democrat spokesperson for liquor.

This is the third change in Liberal policy on wholesale pricing in the last year. Last July in Estimates, the Attorney General said that she wouldn’t change the wholesale price system. She then reversed course, implementing a new wholesale price mark-up of 89 per cent applied to the first $11.75 per litre of wine, and a second mark-up of 67 per cent applied to the remainder. In this third change, she has changed the second tier mark-up by lowering it to 27 per cent.

“There’s a reason this announcement came out on a Friday, and on the same day as the Mount Polley report was released. The Liberals hope nobody notices that their liquor law reform to date has been a continuing disaster. So far it has achieved nothing but price hikes for consumers, and big hits for small, family owned businesses and restaurants. No wonder they’re backing off,” said Eby. “What will they change next? This uncertainty is terrible for small businesses across the province.”