October 10, 2014
Mr. Barry Bieller
Director of Policy, Planning, and Communications
Liquor Control and Licensing Branch
Victoria, BC
VIA EMAIL: Janice.Carlson@gov.bc.ca
Dear Mr. Bieller,
Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback on implementing additional Serving it Right
(SIR) training requirements for special occasion license (SOL) holders. As you well know, ABLE
BC strongly supports ensuring that people who sell and serve liquor are suitably trained and
aware of their legal responsibilities.
As the only association representing British Columbia’s private liquor stores, bars, pubs, and
hotel liquor licensees, ABLE BC is uniquely placed to provide industry expertise across the
spectrum of liquor policies. In preparing the attached recommendations, we consulted
extensively with our 1,000 licensee members, who operate in every region in the province and
directly employ nearly 100,000 British Columbians.
Thank you very much for your time. If you require additional information, please do not
hesitate to contact our Executive Director, Jeff Guignard, at jeff@ablebc.ca or (604) 688-5560.
Sincerely,
Poma Dhaliwal, President
Alliance of Beverage Licensees
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SERVING IT RIGHT (SIR) TRAINING REQUIREMENTS
FOR SPECIAL OCCASION LICENSE (SOL) HOLDERS
Overall Concerns
Given the legal liability and safety concerns of serving alcohol, ABLE BC believes that:

Everyone who serves alcohol should be subject to the same requirements and made
aware of their legal liability to serve responsibly;

Implementing a “focused, abridged, and less expensive version of SIR… for people who
receive Special Occasion Licences (SOLs) or who serve at these events” will not achieve
the goal of ensuring that everyone understands their responsibilities around serving of
liquor; and

It is worth noting that, in a recent survey of SOL holders, more than half of respondents
had no suggestions on how to enhance the usefulness of the course.
Our Recommendations
1. Everyone who serves alcohol should be subject to the same requirements.
2. SOL servers/licensees with valid certificates from other Canadian jurisdictions should be
exempt from additional training.
3. Consistent with our recommendation on the SIR program, we believe SIR certificates
holders should be required to recertify every five years. The recertification test should
be at a reduced fee of $10. If the government introduces an abridged SOL-SIR
certificate, that certificate should only be valid for the SOL in question.
4. SIR training should continue to be available in both online and print form.