By James Peters

Kamloops councillor blames wine flip-flop on provincial government

Jun 22, 2016 | 3:34 PM

KAMLOOPS — Councillor Denis Walsh is putting the blame for council’s waffling on allowing wine sales at the Sahali Save-On Foods squarely on the shoulders of the provincial government.

Walsh says the province’s regulations around wine in grocery stores were hastily written up and poorly communicated.

And Walsh adds Terry Lake and Todd Stone should not have been so quick to criticize Kamloops council’s decision.

“It was unfair, the criticism that we got from our local MLAs. There has been very little communication or pre-planning in the sense of having a conversation with council, even with the private liquor stores, and liquor board what really is going to happen here. There are so many different misunderstandings around this issue,” said Walsh. 

Walsh says he might be willing to support selling wine in Save-On if it reverts to a “store within a store” model.

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“They’ve got the VQA certified wines, we now established that’s the right way to go. Now, I believe the next step is we need to get it out of the aisles, and it should be a store within a store, as the government policy states.” 

Council is awaiting another report from staff after last week voting to reconsider the idea of allowing BC wine sales in Save-On.

RELATED VIDEO: No booze in Save-On Foods