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Torontoist Pretend Interview with Greg Sorbara

By Joshua Errett

2005_01_11lcbo.gifAmid renewed concerns of the efficiency of the LCBO, the provincial government has appointed some sort of panel in attempts to modernize the liquor board. While Torontoist didn’t actually sit down with panel organizer Greg Sorbara, that didn’t stop us from conducting a hard-hitting interview with the Finance Minister. Here’s the exclusive:
Torontoist: Hi Greg!
Minister Sorbara: (no answer)
Torontoist: So what’s all this we hear about the LCBO?
Minister Sorbara: [The current system of liquor control is a] patchwork of policies and agreements dating back to the 1920s and the end of prohibition.
Torontoist: Yes, that’s hardly new information. We think everybody on earth must know that. Surely you can’t be considering selling the LCBO. Can you? What of the $1.04 billion that it makes for the province?
Minister Sorbara: [LCBO is responsible for] delivering maximum possible benefits [to Ontarians].
2005_01_11booze.bmpTorontoist: Are you drunk? Everyone knows that. Can you tell us if you are going to sell the LCBO or not?
Minister Sorbara: Our government made a commitment to undertake a thorough review of major assets. This is an opportunity for impartial experts to undertake a comprehensive review of the industry and recommend ways it can work better.
Torontoist: You have three seconds to tell us if the LCBO will be privatized or else we walk. One…two…two and a half…
Minister Sorbara: The LCBO is not for sale.
Torontoist: Great news! What do you say we go to the sampling station at the Yonge and Summerhill store and put back a few?
Minister Sorbara: (no answer)

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Comments

  • http://toronto.1051am.com travis

    Just because they won’t sell the LCBO doesn’t mean they won’t change the laws. Imagine any store could buy the rights to sell liquor. Then we could buy a $5 bottle of wine for $5 at a convenience store 24 hours a day, instead of at the LCBO for $10 between the hours of 11 and 6. Oh man, that would be sooo awesome.

  • http://www.torontoist.com Josh

    while the 24/7 comment certainly rings true, lower prices are definitely a myth. those convienence and liquor store types will jack up the prices of the booze to no end. look at cigarettes; in some neighbourhoods they cost over 10$ and in others they cost 6$. it would be the same sort of gouging techniques for booze.
    furthermore, during an unfortunate trip to ab, i was shocked to see a bottle of red costs more at a corner store in edmonton than the lcbo here. the after hours tax in quebec makes buying beer after 6pm (or whatever early hour) almost prohibitive in pq as well. is it worth the cost?
    realistically, the prices will not change in a private system. the only difference will be that the surcharges will go to slimey corner store owner rather than the slimey government.

  • http://www.nestruck.com JKelly

    Uh, everything’s more expensive at convenience stores. That’s why they call them convenience stores… (Or, where I come from, depanneurs.)
    Anyway, yes beer at the corner store! Yes bring-your-own-wine restaurants! Yes sanity!

  • Garnet

    Put me down for liquor liberation too. I was in Alberta during the booze-store privatization in the ’90s and it’s one part of the Ralph Revolution that no one wants undone. After the first time you extend a late-night party by buying a bottle at 1:45, you won’t go back. Come on in, Ontario; the water’s fine.

  • http://www.torontoist.com Josh

    well that is a falsehood if i ever saw one, jkelly. to prove you wrong, i bought a pack of maltesers (or a similar brand of tasty chocolate covered malt balls) at a convenience store. then i went to a grocery store and they were the exact same price! i continued the experiment at a movie theatre, but they were so much more expensive there. but i guess that’s why they call them movie theatres.
    no high prices! no gouging in poor and student areas! no wiping out ontario’s delicious microbreweries because corner stores don’t want to carry anything but molson canadian!
    unless my cost analysis is flawed, i still think private control of liquor is a bad idea. extended hours of operation (maybe one store per region stays open 24hours?) and restaurant byob would quench everyone’s thirst just fine.

  • http://paigesix.blogspot.com Paige

    My best friend works/her family owns a liquor store in Nova Scotia and she loves being in Ontario cos our prices are legally able to be cheaper than NS.
    So it has nothing to do with convenience stores…
    But if you ignore the prices, the good thing about AB liquor stores is that they are open till 2 am! 2am!
    You could technically shoot back your last call drink and make it to the liquor store to buy more (if there was someone who could drive you…)

  • Yermum

    If I’m not mistaken, the LCBO remains the largest single purchaser of liquor in the world. The LCBO is to booze as Walmart’s is to Dora the Explorer slippers made by 3rd world children. Wanna give that up? I don’t think you’ll have the same low low prices.
    My liquor store used to stay open till 11pm. Not anymore. Know why? Because it was empty after 10.