As drinking dries up, Quebec's liquor board faces criticism over efforts to boost sales

In quebec city, you put up at present break up up a bottleful of gin with your bulk toilet paper at Costco or Maxi, get wine delivered to your door in minutes via Uber Eats and soon get targeted texts about the latest deals on booze.

With the consumption of alcohol on a steady decline, the province’s state-run liquor retailer is making an aggressive attempt to make sure sales don’t dip.

A series of recent moves by the Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ) has raised concern among public health experts, who worry the agency is prioritizing sales over social responsibility.

“What we have been seeing for the last months and last years is that [there] are really more and more strategies put in place to be able to sell, which in turn can have major impacts on health and on overall costs for our society as well,” said Kim Brière-Charest, a researcher with the Quebec Public Health Association.

The SAQ remains a significant source of revenue for the Quebec government, generating $1.4 billion for the province in 2024-25 — and the head of the Crown corporation wants to keep it that way.

At the same time, people’s thirst for alcohol is down. Quebecers are following the national trend of drinking less, with the province seeing a 3.6 per cent drop in total volume sold last year.

In its strategic plan released earlier this month, the Crown corporation outlined a strategy to “roll up our sleeves and take action.”

“Quebecers are drinking less and, above all, differently. For the first time in years, the SAQ is seeing its volume sales decline. But this isn’t the end. It’s a new beginning,” Jacques Farcy, SAQ’s president and CEO, says in the document’s introduction.

In addition to the new partnership with Uber Eats, the SAQ is expanding the number of “SAQ Zones” in grocery stores, convenience stores and a Costco in Montreal. The SAQ also wants to use more personalized text messages and push notifications to drive sales, according to its plan.

“We’re not trying to encourage alcohol consumption — on the contrary, we welcome its decline. What we do want, however, is for those who choose to consume beverage alcohol to buy it from us,” Farcy said in the plan.

This approach has drawn criticism from groups including the Institut de recherche et d'informations socioéconomiques (IRIS), a Quebec think tank.

A report earlier this year argued that the SAQ risks “counteracting the positive effects on public health associated with public companies” by leaning on private businesses.

IRIS said publicly operated SAQs are more likely to ensure “better control over the sale of alcohol, a psychoactive substance whose consumption is linked to various health and safety problems (alcoholism, road accidents, etc.)”

The Canadian Union for Public Employees, which represents SAQ workers, took aim at the Uber Eats partnership in particular, for favouring the “American economy at the expense of Quebec’s.” 

It also argued that the sale and delivery of alcohol comes with clear and regulated responsibilities, including checking age requirements and assessing buyers’ level of intoxication.

In a statement in response to these criticisms, SAQ spokesperson Laurianne Tardif said the Crown corporation's mandate is to "sell alcohol responsibly, and to generate dividends that contribute to the government’s ability to fund public missions."

"Our initiatives are not intended to increase alcohol consumption, nor to normalize or promote spirits in everyday retail settings," Tardif said.

"They reflect changing consumer expectations about where and how legal products are accessed, while ensuring that alcohol remains subject to strict oversight, limits and accountability."

The statement said the SAQ Zones were launched through a pilot phase designed to test different retail spaces in a "highly controlled manner," including at one Costco in Montreal. She said the partnership with Uber Eats would also be reviewed after a test period.

Still, public health experts question the SAQ's approach when studies suggest alcohol has by far the highest economic impact of any drug. 

In Canada, alcohol-related harms — including those related to health care, lost productivity and the criminal justice system — cost the country $19.7 billion in 2020, followed by tobacco at $11.2 billion, according to the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction.

By comparison, cannabis, which is subjected to far more stringent retail regulations in Quebec, was much lower down the list at $2.4 billion, Brière-Charest pointed out.

Brière-Charest feels there is a double standard in the way the two drugs are sold in Quebec.

Quebec's cannabis agency (SQDC), which has just over 100 stores across the province, has a limited selection of products and does not promote or advertise. The SAQ, by comparison, has more than 400 locations — and another 400 points of sale.

“With cannabis, we have our very least recent legal frame that actually ensures a protection of health, which we don't have with alcohol,” Brière-Charest said. 

“What we are wondering is: Why can't we integrate some of the knowledge … for the substance that actually is the more costly health-wise and socially?”

Journalist

Benjamin Shingler is a reporter based in Montreal covering social issues and Quebec politics. He previously worked at The Canadian Press and the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal, and is an alumnus of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network. He can be reached at benjamin.shingler@cbc.ca.

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