Application Review: Once you submit your Liquor-Primary licence application
Application Review
As soon as we receive your application, we will first make sure you have provided all the necessary information and documentation.
Please note:
It is your responsibility to check with your local government/First Nation to ensure that all of their requirements are being met as well (see Local government or other approvals for more information). If you later discover you will not be able to operate your establishment, we cannot refund your application or licence fees.
Applicant Eligibility Assessment
Once your application is complete, our staff will then determine if you are eligible to hold a liquor licence. This will include verifying that you are a B.C. resident, Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada, at least 19 years old, and that you have no ties to a UBrew/UVin, liquor manufacturer or independent agent. We will verify that you own the business and have valid interest in the property. We will also assess your suitability as a liquor licensee. This assessment includes conducting a criminal record check – see Criminal Record Search page for more information. If you have held a liquor licence before, we will review your history as a liquor licensee. If you have held a liquor licence before, we will review your history as a liquor licensee.
We will send you an Application Summary. Because this is the document that we will be sending on to your local government to use in reviewing your application (see below), you will have an opportunity to review the summary and provide us with any new information or correct any errors in the summary before we send it to your local government.
Site and Community Assessment
Once we have received and incorporated your additions or changes to the Application Summary, we will send it on to your local government (municipality, regional district, or First Nation), along with additional information about the surrounding community, such as population statistics, and demographic, economic and market factors.
The local government will then have 90 days to respond (they may, however, ask for an extension). Please see Local government or other approvals for more on this process.
Once we have received your local government's resolution, we will assess it to ensure it addresses all the regulatory requirements and that the process to date has been fair. In exceptional circumstances only, we may hold a hearing.
Building Assessment
If everything is in order, we will send you a letter, saying that we have decided in favour of granting you the licence - but the approval process is not yet finished.
The next step requires you to submit a final copy of your proposed floor plans, approved by the appropriate local authorities, that includes the occupant load. We will review your plans to make sure they comply with the Liquor Control and Licensing Act and its Regulations and with Liquor Control and Licensing Branch policies on lines of sight, staff control, equipment, etc.
Once we have approved your plans, you can start building, installing signs and equipment, ordering advertising, and so on.
Establishment Inspection and Applicant Interview
Thirty days before you are ready to open you will need to call your local liquor inspector to arrange for an establishment inspection and applicant interview.
At this time, the inspector will go over with you the requirements of the Liquor Control and Licensing Act and its Regulations, and the specific terms and conditions of your licence.
The inspector will also review your floor plans to make sure actual construction reflects what was submitted with your floor plans, and give you a copy of Liquor-Primary Licence Terms and Conditions: A Guide for Liquor Licensees in British Columbia.
If all is in order, the liquor inspector will ask you to contact our Head Office in Victoria to pay your first-year annual licence fee of $1,100.00, and we will issue your licence.
