Serving Liquor in a Public Place

If you want to serve liquor in a public place or sell liquor anywhere, you will need either a private or public Special Occasion License. Applications for special occasion licenses are available from BC Liquor Stores. There are many rules and regulations regarding the sale of alcohol in BC. A few of these rules are:

· Paid managers and servers at your event will require Serving It Right certification.

· You must purchase your liquor from a BC Liquor Store or another source approved by the Liquor Distribution Branch.

· Minors (under age 19) are generally allowed at licensed special events, but may not drink or serve liquor, or sell drink tickets. Minors are not allowed in public beer gardens.

· Your servers must ask to see two pieces of identification if they believe the person ordering a drink is underage.

· You must not sell or serve liquor to an intoxicated person, or allow an intoxicated person to remain in the area covered by your Special Occasion License.

· If a person becomes intoxicated, you must take reasonable steps to ensure that the person does not harm himself/herself or others.

· You must supply a reasonable amount of food and non-alcoholic beverages at your event.

Once you have a Special Occasion License, if you serve alcohol to someone who becomes impaired as a result, you may be held legally liable for that person's subsequent behavior. As a licensee, you have a "duty of care" which means you must protect patrons at your event and others from harm that may be associated with the activity of drinking. This includes harm which may occur on the premises of your event, as well as harm which may occur after the patron has left the premises.

For more information regarding Special Occasion liquor licenses click here, or for more information on Serving it Right click here.