Nova Scotia is putting a potential plan to allow alcohol sales in corner stores on ice after consultations showed little interest in expanding retail access but an “appetite for change” elsewhere in the province’s liquor sales model.

The results of the 2025 survey, released in a report Thursday, suggest the vast majority of respondents find alcohol widely accessible in Nova Scotia, with just lukewarm support for expanding sales to convenience stores, gas stations, large chain retailers and grocery stores.

“We’re not going forward with the changes at this time,” Finance Minister John Lohr told CBC News, echoing comments by Premier Tim Houston earlier in the week.

The province commissioned the $300,000 report partly to gauge interest in expanding retail access of alcohol.

The report, by Crestview and Infuse Public Relations, said 1,501 Nova Scotians over the age of 19 took part in a survey, 61 organizations provided written submissions, and more than 120 participants attended in-person sessions. The participants included producers, industry representatives and community groups.

“Combined, these engagements reveal a province with a strong interest in supporting local businesses, sustaining existing structures, protecting local industry, and ensuring strong public health measures,” the report said.

Competing with big brands

Karl Coutinho, president of Wine Growers Nova Scotia, said although consumers like to have convenient options, expanding to corner stores would not benefit local producers who would likely be competing with big brands for shelf space.

“They’re already going to outperform us at the NSLC [Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation] as it is,” said Coutinho in an interview.

“We don’t need to give them more avenue to sell their product and less for us.”

He and other groups surveyed expressed support for cross-selling, which would allow a winery to sell its products at another winery or a brewery and vice versa.

Coutinho also suggested putting more local products in the NSLC’s 62 agency stores across the province. Agency stores are privately owned businesses — including corner stores and gas stations — that are authorized to sell NSLC products in rural communities.

Impossible to create relationships

Andrew Tanner is a co-founder of Saltbox Brewing Company in Mahone Bay, N.S., and president of the Craft Brewers Association of Nova Scotia. Like Coutinho, he said it would be extremely difficult for even the largest craft breweries to compete with big name brands in corner stores.

“It’ll be near impossible for them to create relationships with 1,000 convenience stores and then service those 1,000 convenience stores,” he told CBC News.

“[The big brands are] willing to do some special things for convenience store owners that may or may not be above board but to gain space that we, just as a craft brewer in Nova Scotia, just can’t afford to deal with.”

‘More than accessible’

The report suggested 83 per cent of participants feel alcohol in Nova Scotia is “more than accessible” and 55 per cent said they did not want to see any retail expansion. 

While 54 per cent said they would support expansion into grocery stores, there was little support for access at gas stations.

Producers, including brewers, wineries and distilleries, were critical of the province’s retail expansion proposal, saying it would merely “redistribute existing sales” instead of leading to more sales.

Brewers specifically said the plan would result in higher production and distribution costs, which would ultimately be passed on to the customer.

Many advocates and physicians were strongly against a private retail expansion of alcohol in Nova Scotia.

“While there is limited support for expanding alcohol access, Nova Scotians and their representative organizations express cautious openness to modernizing alcohol retail access if changes are pursued,” the report said.

No decision on cross-selling

Any change would need to be slow, regulated, and under collaboration with public health and “local economic resilience.”

Lohr said Thursday he’s aware of requests for cross-selling products and agency store expansions, but “there’s not been a decision made on that.”

Instead, he said the government is now focused on growing the economy and addressing the deficit.

MORE TOP STORIES