End of limits on the purchase of alcohol in other provinces

Quebec will allow consumers to buy their alcoholic beverages in other Canadian provinces, without limit constraints.

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On Tuesday, the Minister for the Economy, Lucie Lecours, announced the end of restrictions, as of April 7, on the quantities of wines, beers and spirits that can be brought back to Quebec when traveling elsewhere in the country.

Until now, it was forbidden to bring back more than 3 liters of spirits, 9 liters of wine and 24.6 liters of beer. The Legault government announced in December 2021 that it wanted to change this measure in order to align its policy with that in force in the majority of the other provinces.

“The quantitative limits for the interprovincial transport of alcoholic beverages represented an outdated restriction for the Quebec population and harmed interprovincial trade,” noted Ms. Lecours.

This measure will allow Quebeckers near Ontario to buy more alcohol from the LCBO. However, they will have to do so in person, as restrictions for online purchases remain in place.

However, the regulations stipulate that the alcohol must be intended for personal consumption and not for resale. A restaurateur or a bar owner will therefore not be able to run bargains in other provinces.

In 2019, a report from the Canadian Free Trade Agreement proposed to remove or increase quantitative limits on alcoholic beverages for personal consumption.

The end of the SAQ monopoly

On the side of the Montreal Economic Institute, management is of the opinion that the government should now tackle the liberalization of the sale of alcohol across the province.

“It is high time to allow Quebec entrepreneurs to play on equal terms by opening the market to competition,” said Gabriel Giguère, public policy analyst at the MEI, in a press release.