Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation needs better plan for local industry, AG says
Posted Jun 23, 2020 02:19:51 PM.
HALIFAX — A new report by Nova Scotia's auditor general says the province's Crown liquor corporation does not have an adequate strategic plan for supporting the province's growing alcohol industry.
Michael Pickup says the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation's planning for the province's industry lacks detail and accountability measures, and oversight is described as “poor.”
He says the only performance measure included in the current plan is growth in local product sales through the corporation's retail network, although there are no specific targets for growth.
Pickup also warns that there has been no risk analysis of the corporation's markup rates for local products in order to flag potential risks and unintended consequences — including whether its pricing is in compliance with various trade agreements.
As well, the report assesses the NSLC's compliance program to measure whether employees were following the corporation's proof of age policy, which requires asking for identification from anyone under 30.
Corporate stores registered a 12 per cent fail rate and agency stores failed 19 per cent of the time, while privately-owned business failed to ask 37 per cent of the time and breweries failed to check 63 per cent of the time.
The results were from internal compliance checks conducted from April 1, 2017, to March 31, 2019.
Meanwhile, Pickup found that the NSLC is not completing responsible retail training for new employees within the first 30 days of employment as required.
He said a test of 30 retail employees found 20 did not complete the training within 30 days of starting work while four workers did not complete the training — which covers areas such as age verification requirements, dealing with minors, and dealing with intoxicated customers — at all.
The auditor's report says the average time to complete the training for the 20 new hires tested was 119 days, with two of them not completing it until a year after they started work.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 23, 2020.
The Canadian Press
