The NDP are planning a complete overhaul of the province's liquor regulations if elected this spring.
During a visit to Prince George on Thursday, NDP liquor distribution branch critic Maurine Karagianis said the current rules governing the production and sale of alcohol in the province are built upon prohibition-era legislation.
"It's been amended and addended over the number of years and I think everyone in the industry will say that it doesn't necessarily serve modern needs and modern times," she said in a media briefing at Pacific Western Brewing. "It needs a wholesale re-evaluation and modernization."
Karagianis said the process for redoing the full set of regulations will take time because the party wants to hear from a variety of industry groups before writing new legislation.
"We would want to undertake a full modernization discussion, I would like to see everyone from the industry involved in a collaborative way so that we're not pitting one part of the industry against another," she said.
The B.C. Liberals announced changes to the liquour rules in February, aimed at lessening the tax impacts on smaller producers. Among the changes that went into effect this month included relaxing rules around lounges located within breweries and changes in regulations on how products can be promoted.
In addition to modernizing the rules, Karagianis said the NDP's plan would also give the industry some stability.
"When the B.C. Liberals are changing policy without due consultation, without notice, and doing it in piecemeal announcements, that doesn't give the industry a lot of confidence going forward," Karagianis said. "People can't plan, businesses can't plan ahead."
PWB creative director Paul Mulgrew welcomed the idea.
"A real business plan has a good three- to five-year projection so if decisions are being made left, right and centre, you can't adjust that plan as fluidly as you would like to," he said. "When you have a portfolio like ours - certain brands are growing, other brands have a certain life cycle - the structure of the portfolio has to change but without real certainty around the numbers its very hard to make those decisions."
After meeting with the media, Karagianis, along with local NDP candidates Bobby Deepak and Sherry Ogasawara, received a tour of PWB conducted by brewmaster Henryk Orlik.
"I think that Pacific Western Brewery demonstrates an industry that has had this great growth potential from a smaller brewery up to being a significant competitor with the larger breweries like Molson and Labatt."
While revamping the province's liquor regulations will take time, one quick fix the NDP is proposing is the repeal of a 30-cent tax on re-fillable 1.8-litre beer containers known as growlers.
"The tax that was announced on growlers is a disincentive for new, young micro-brewries that are trying out this new market," Karagianis said, adding the tax could be repealed within 100 days of the NDP forming government.
PWB isn't currently in the growler market, but it is something the company has considered in the past.
In some places consumers have to go to a micro-brewery to re-fill their growler, while in other jurisdiction kegs are available at retail outlets where the consumers can fill up their containers.
