Montreal, November 11, 2020 - In a brief tabled today before the Committee on Institutions of the National Assembly studying Bill 72, the Association Restauration Québec (ARQ) supported the legislative proposal and reiterated its impatience to see completed the process, started 20 years ago, leading to the modernization of the framework for the sale and service of alcoholic beverages in Quebec.
Thus, the ARQ salutes many measures found in the bill, in particular the one that will allow the restaurant to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on the spot without necessarily being served with food, the one that authorized a delivery service operated by a third to deliver for a restaurant wine and beer as an accompaniment to food and also the one that will create a category of seasonal permit that will cost less than currently for establishments that do not operate their permit year round.
"For us, the rapid adoption of these measures is even more important in the current context where restaurateurs need to have all the room for maneuver possible to ensure their survival," declared before the members of the Commission the President of the ARQ Board of Directors, Ms. Claudine Roy. We can only hope that parliamentarians, all parties combined, will do their utmost to ensure the rapid adoption of these new provisions so that they are in force as soon as the dining rooms of establishments located in the red zone reopen, expected very soon. , at least we hope so. "
In addition, the ARQ has submitted to parliamentarians some improvement proposals for Bill 72. Thus, the Association would like its members to be able to also sell for take-out and delivery with food, premixed drinks made from spirits in individual format. Currently, only wine and beer can be. Restaurant owners are also in agreement that holders of bar permits with a food supply equivalent to that of a restaurant can, like restaurants, be authorized to sell certain alcoholic beverages for take-out or delivery to accompany the food they prepare.
In addition, the ARQ said in its intervention that the many measures adopted in June 2018 with Bill 170 would enter into force as soon as possible, such as the creation of the “caterer” option and the authorization to allow hotels and other tourist accommodation establishments to allow alcoholic beverages to be consumed in their common areas, such as lobbies.
Finally, despite their satisfaction with the content of Bill 72, the representatives of restaurateurs deplored that the abolition of the labeling system for bottles of alcoholic beverages, initially scheduled for June 12, 2020, yet promised and unanimously adopted in June 2018 by MPs from all parties, has been postponed until later.
Founded in 1938, the ARQ has nearly 5,500 members and is the largest association of restaurant managers in Quebec and the oldest in Canada. Over the past two decades, she has participated in all stages and in all consultations and reflections on the modernization of laws and regulations relating to alcoholic beverages.
