N.B. doesn't expect sales to fall after dropping personal limits on booze from other provinces
Province once fought in courts to keep restrictions on alcohol from elsewhere for personal use
It's an early Friday afternoon in July, and a steady flow of vehicles with New Brunswick plates pours in and out of the parking lot of a small orange building in Degelis, Que., about 700 metres from the New Brunswick border.
People walk inside and return a few minutes later, some carrying a case or two of beer, others with several loaded on a dolly.
Gilles Rouest is one of them. He's been making the 15-minute drive from Edmundston to buy his beer for years.
"I save $14 on a case of beer," he said. "It's the same thing, I don't know why it's higher there than here."
Until recently, New Brunswickers were restricted to bringing 24 cans or bottles of beer and 40 ounces of liquor back from another province. But as part of an effort to break down interprovincial trade barriers after tariff and annexation threats from the U.S., those rules are gone.
"The elimination of the personal limit was already finalized with the bill and it is applicable right now," said Jean-Claude D'Amours, the New Brunswick intergovernmental affairs minister.
"So somebody who's travelling in another province of the country, there are no limits for your own consumption."
It's been a longstanding question what kind of effect the proximity of cheap Quebec beer has on the sales at New Brunswick Liquor stores in the Madawaska and Restigouche regions.
D'Amours is from Edmundston and said it's well known that many have been skirting the rules for years already.
"If they want to go there, they already go there," he said. "We were all thinking that everyone was respecting the law, but I don't think it was a stop for anyone to go there.
"Those who [want to go] there were already going there. And I don't think that necessarily more people will go because the personal limit is now eliminated."
According to data from N.B. Liquor, there was a noticeable increase at stores in the Quebec border region when New Brunswickers faced travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020-2021, sales at N.B. Liquor stores in Edmundston rose by 37 per cent. In Dalhousie, sales were up by 36 per cent while Campbellton saw a 75 per cent spike.
Meanwhile, both Fredericton and Moncton saw slight declines in sales that year.
Since 2020-2021, sales have cooled in the northwest, falling nine per cent in Edmundston, 23 per cent in Dalhousie and 31 per cent in Campbellton.
In the same period, sales in Fredericton and Moncton are up by nine per cent and 14 per cent respectively.
N.B. Liquor did not make CEO Lori Stickles available for an interview but said in a statement that there are no anticipated changes to "our business or our strategy."
Not everyone in Edmundston looks west when it's time for a liquor run. Some people outside one of the N.B. Liquor locations in Edmundston said they prefer to stay in city limits to buy their alcohol.
"I buy beer that comes from New Brunswick and they don't sell it in Quebec, so that's why I buy it here," said Nicolas Martin.
"That's the beer I like and I'm going to stick with that."
Kerri Russel said it's the convenience that keeps her shopping at the provincial store.
"I don't drink a lot so I just come here," she said.
N.B. Liquor makes a sizeable annual contribution to provincial coffers, bringing in $190 million last fiscal year. And the province has fought hard to uphold protectionist measures in the recent past.
In 2012, Gerard Comeau was fined nearly $300 after he was caught coming from Quebec with 14 cases of beer. The case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where a unanimous decision in 2018 upheld interprovincial alcohol restrictions.
When asked why the province is so interested in dropping those restrictions now after fighting so hard to keep them in place, D'Amours said that priorities change over time.
"You're talking about decision of the past for past government," he said.
"In our case, we think that we need to open our border between provinces and territories and this will help our economy, one way or another. Because at the end, if we open on one side for sure other provinces will open on their side and will give us an opportunity to grow our economy."
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