Province makes amendments to IWS license: Establishments soon allowed to sell more than wine

VICTORIA—Wine selling establishments will no longer be limited to only selling wine, as the Province amends regulations to allow all remaining independent wine stores (IWS) to convert their license to include selling beer, cider and distilled products.

In a release from the Ministry of Attorney General, it says the change will likely result in the elimination of the IWS retail license class which consists of 11 retail licensee locations province-wide. The IWS license was originally established to promote wine sales. In exchange for the sales restriction, IWS operators received an additional discount on the wholesale price of wine that other liquor retail store operators did not.

This rule amendment allows the remaining 11 IWS locations in the province to convert to a full-service liquor store without having to relocate one kilometre away from other liquor stores, if they wish to convert and stay in their current location. If an IWS chooses to move after converting its licence type or as part of the process of converting, it will be subject to the one-kilometre rule.

The Province says that it is not considering revisions to the one-kilometre distance requirement for any other retail license types and will not be increasing the number of retail liquor licenses in the province.