Selection locations liquor can be sold on P.E.I. appears unfair, says AG

A report from the Office of the Auditor General concluded that some of the P.E.I. Liquor Control Commission's agency stores were not selected in line with regulations. 

Agency stores, typically corner stores and gas stations, are supposed to be selected by following a process in which a community approaches the liquor commission with the hope of getting a store and the commission determines whether it meets the requirements, said Darren Noonan, P.E.I.'s Auditor General. 

If it meets the requirements, a request for proposal would go out to the community and anyone with interest would have an equal opportunity to apply, Noonan said. 

"In this case, we found instances where people had approached the Liquor Control Commission with an interest in opening an agency store, and then the community was approached, and then an RFP process happened after that," he said. 

"It appears that maybe it wasn't a fair process," Noonan said.

Why it matters

The appearance of an unfair situation is a problem because "within government, everything should be fair," Noonan said. "It should be an equal and open opportunity for everybody."

In this case, some people in a given community may have been aware that a request for proposal was coming, while others were not informed, Noonan said. 

"When you have a three of four week window to put your RFP together, it can  make it difficult for somebody who just learns about it at the last minute," he said. 

The P.E.I. Liquor Control Board's meeting minutes did not specify which people or communities it met with, Noonan said.

Monitoring of stores

The audit also identified issues with monitoring of the stores, Noonan said. 

In some agency stores, IDs were not being properly checked, he said. 

When the commission was informed about stores not checking IDs properly, "no action was being taken," he said. 

Noonan met with the liquor commission, and said he feels that it will make changes based on recommendations. 

The Office of the Auditor General will continue to follow up for the next four years, Noonan said.