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Government announces changes to NLC

Paul Dicks, Minister of Finance and Treasury Board, announced today that Government will not proceed with full scale privatization of the Newfoundland Liquor Corporation (NLC) retail stores as it is not the approach which best meets the needs of the province at this time.

Government and the employees' union have agreed to convert three NLC stores to agency stores, namely Flower's Cove, Harbour Grace and Deer Lake. The Water Street West store in St. John's will close. A new distribution centre will open in Deer Lake, and Clarenville operations will be expanded to include new warehousing facilities. A retail operation will continue in Clarenville, and a new agency store will open in that region. An agency store will also open in Deer Lake.

The minister also said government will improve service in Conception Bay North by converting the Harbour Grace store to two agency stores. One will remain in Harbour Grace. A new one will open in Carbonear. As well, the hours of operation at the NLC store in Bay Roberts will be expanded to a 6 day, 6 night operation.

"Over the past number of months, government has spent much time reviewing all the options for the sale and distribution of liquor products in the province. The review has been extensive, and has involved analysing our approach and the approaches other provinces in Canada have taken with the sale of liquor products," said Mr. Dicks.

"Today, we have reached a decision not to proceed with full scale privatization," said the minister. "In our view, there should be a reasonable balance between publicly and privately operated stores. Our strategy will continue to recognize the differences between urban and rural markets, and will ensure that pricing, cost control, product regulations, consumer selection, government revenue and service levels will not be compromised."

Since 1991, 14 NLC stores have been closed and the total number of agency stores increased to 72. After implementation of today's announcement, Government will have replaced 50 per cent of the province's liquor stores with private sector operations. This has been done in an effort to broaden service throughout the province, especially to rural areas. "Our approach today builds on this record of success," said Mr. Dicks.

"There will be no job losses from these changes," said the minister. "All employees affected by store conversions will be accommodated in other NLC operations."

Liquor store conversions will be carried out in the context of the collective agreement with NAPE.

In maintaining responsibility for regulation and distribution of liquor products, government will retain its controlled access to these products, as well as the revenue benefits to the provincial treasury, which in turn go toward the maintenance of public services.

The NLC will continue to review its operations in the future. However, there are no plans to close or convert additional stores within the next five years. This will provide employees with a level of confidence regarding long term job security and will also allow the Liquor Corporation to proceed with implementing long term operational and financial plans that are essential to streamlining its operations.

Contact: Karen McCarthy, Director of Communications, 709-729-0110

  Speaking notes