Looking to open or expand a liquor store in British Columbia? Rising Tide Consulting (RTC) is here to help you find the perfect location to set your business up for success.

Why Location Matters

Choosing the right location for your liquor store is about more than just foot traffic. It requires a careful analysis of demographics, zoning rules, proximity restrictions, and the competitive landscape. At RTC, we combine cutting-edge mapping technology with hands-on experience working with the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch (LCRB) to ensure that the locations we recommend are not only fully compliant with regulations but also strategically positioned for long-term growth.

How We Help You Succeed

Our full range of services is designed to give you the insight and support you need to open or expand your liquor store with confidence:

• Strategic Site Selection & Mapping: Identify the ideal location anywhere in B.C. using data-driven insights.
• Demographic & Market Analysis: Understand your customer base, local trends, and the competitive landscape.
• Zoning & Land-Use Compliance: Avoid costly mistakes by ensuring your location meets all municipal and provincial regulations.
• LCRB & Municipal Coordination: Navigate approvals efficiently with our expertise and established relationships.
• Application & Licensing Support: From initial strategy to final submission, we guide you through the licensing process every step of the way.

Whether you’re an investor, developer, or operator, our team gives you the confidence to turn opportunity into reality.

Get Started Today

Don’t leave your liquor store location to chance. Contact Rising Tide Consulting and start your journey to finding the ideal liquor store location in B.C.!

The recent BCGEU strike has made it clear that B.C.’s liquor distribution system needs major reform. While government liquor store employees have the right to strike, the LDB’s warehousing and distribution operations are essential to the province’s hospitality industry and should always be treated as such. Just as Dr. Bonnie Henry declared during COVID.

Hotels, restaurants, pubs, and event venues depend on this system yet are left stranded during labour disputes they aren’t part of. A first step would be amending Section 8 of the Liquor Control & Licensing Act to allow licensees to buy from private stores during strikes. When LDB staff return, they’ll also face an even greater backlog on top of the delays that already existed.

Liquor Service until 4:00 AM – Vancouver Leads the Way

On July 21, 2025, Vancouver City Council made a landmark decision that will redefine the downtown experience: LIQUOR SERVICE CAN NOW EXTEND TO 4:00 AM, SEVEN DAYS A WEEK!

This unanimous vote, highlighted by CBC News, opens doors for hospitality businesses to apply for extended hours, putting Vancouver on the map as THE Canadian destination for nightlife, tourism, and international events.

What this means for you:

• Licensees in the downtown core may soon apply for extended liquor licenses with extended service hours
• Greater flexibility for patrons and event organizers, as well as increased support for local businesses. Extended hours mean more flexibility and revenue for operators, especially as the city gears up for events like FIFA 2026
• Boosts Tourism & Hospitality – with over 1200 establishments in the downtown core already licensed, Vancouver is poised to become Canada’s PREMIER destination for nightlife and late night dining
• Reduces congestion and enhances safety; staggered closing times help ease the 2:00 AM crowd surge, improving transportation flow and reducing neighbourhood disturbances

Whether you are a cocktail connoisseur, a dancefloor devotee, or just looking for a vibrant place to connect, Vancouver is setting the stage for unforgettable nights!

At Rising Tide Consultants (RTC), we see this as a pivotal moment for the hospitality and tourism sectors. Our experienced team is ready to help operators navigate this transition and position their businesses for ongoing success under the new bylaw.

Whether you are updating your existing liquor license, applying for extended service, or seeking compliance strategies, Rising Tide Consultants is here to help you rise to the occasion.

Let’s raise a glass to a city that knows how to keep the party going!

The LCRB are alerting licensees that they are coming after all businesses that failed a Minors as Agents Program inspection in the last 24 months.

All of those licensees can expect to be “retested” for compliance, and the penalties are now even more egregious.

When establishments commit a second contravention for the same issue within 24 months of a previously proven contravention, the penalty increases to reflect continued noncompliance. In the case of selling to minors, a second contravention has a monetary penalty in the range of $11,000 to $15,000 or a licence suspension of 11 to 15 days.

Rising Tide Consultants is completely opposed to the Minors as Agents Program and how the LCRB is operating it. To put this into perspective, the most serious offence under the regulation is the sale and service of liquor to an intoxicated person and allowing an intoxicated person to remain in a licensed establishment. The repercussions of this offence have the potential to lead to fatalities. The fine for this is only $3,000, and the inspector has discretion as to whether or not to impose a fine, give a warning or hold an enforcement meeting.

For serving a minor, there is an automatic $7,000 fine for a first offence, and the inspector has no discretion on whether they can impose a warning instead of issuing the fine.

We agree that the service of alcohol to minors should be addressed in all licensed establishments and that proper training, increased awareness, and protocols must be put in place. However, the penalties imposed are misaligned with the infraction. We urge the government to review the MAP and adjust how it is being carried out.

Rising Tide Consultants has spent countless hours researching this program, conducting audits for licensees and providing the necessary tools and procedures you need to pass a MAP inspection. We also provide you with all that you need for the defence of due diligence should you be caught in non-compliance.

As of now, the MAP inspections are going to continue, so contact us today. We are experts on this program, and we are here to help!

We all love to cheer on our Canucks during the playoffs, but we are urging our clients to remember to create a safe and compliant environment for their patrons this season.

Responsible alcohol service is essential in keeping our city safe for these upcoming celebrations, so please be vigilant in enforcing your liquor service policies and ensure that proper ID practices are always adhered to.

Remember if you are caught serving alcohol to a minor you will be fined $7,000 on the spot! Over-service is a key factor in situations escalating to a point no one wants to see, so watch your guest’s consumption closely.

Alcohol products purchased to-go must be accompanied by a meal, and by this we mean not just a bag of chips. Want to know what constitutes a “meal” in this instance? Give us a call

Both the VPD and inspectors from the LCRB will be out in full force during the games so be sure to have the following items up to date and ready to show if they pay you a visit:

• Serving it Right certificates for all serving staff
• Your liquor & business license posted correctly
• Current floor plan
• Liquor register
• Alcohol Sense Materials
• Policy & Procedures Manuals that outline responsible liquor service

Missing some items? Have questions about getting this all organized in time? We are here to help!

Let’s all work cooperatively with our enforcement teams that are working hard to protect the citizens of Vancouver and prioritize mindful service and safety practices so that we can have a fun, successful Stanley Cup playoff season!

Vancouver City Council met Wednesday, Dec 13, 2023 on some very important issues for Industry.

We are proud to be a member of the Hospitality Task Force with key industry partners, including the BCRFA, ABLE BC, Restaurants Canada, The Craft Brewer’s Guild and the BCHA that has been advocating to the city on the following key issues. We are pleased to report some impactful wins! Vancouver is no longer “No Fun City.”

The existing licensing moratoriums for Granville Street, Chinatown and Gastown have been eliminated so those areas of Vancouver are now open for new business licenses or expansion of existing licensed establishments.

“With respect to the moratorium on Granville Street, my view is moratoriums just prop up the dinosaurs, it does not allow for creativity, innovation, and a new opportunity to breathe life in. You’re just propping up the cheap bars, with cheap drinks, and you end up with drunks. I think you need to have that creativity and innovation to allow us to compete with other cities.” ~Bert Hick, Founder and President Rising Tide Consultants

The distancing requirements of licensed establishments has also been eliminated, clearing the way for more licensed establishments of similar size.

The licensing of retail business with liquor primary licenses, such as Spas, Beauty Salons and Retail Stores has now been approved. This will allow for these types of businesses to serve alcohol to their patrons along with their regular retail business.

These are very positive outcomes and we are proud to have been an integral part of bringing these changes to the City of Vancouver. We promise to continue our mission to streamline processes, slash red tape and eliminate antiquated policies for the benefit of our tourism and hospitality industries.

Read the City News article HERE

Bert Hick, a liquor and cannabis licensing expert who heads Rising Tide Consultants, said he is “saddened” by the news and fears for the whole hospitality industry.

“A lot of it was COVID,” said Hick, but it’s also labour shortages, rising costs and the looming payback of pandemic financial supports from the federal government.

“It’s a bit of a perfect storm,” said Hick. “The hospitality industry is very, very fragile right now. My prediction is you’re going to hear more horror stories in the coming months” with the COVID relief payments coming due at the end of the year.

The Donnelly Group, which owns pubs and clubs that are fixtures in Vancouver’s nightlife and hospitality industry, is filing for creditor protection.

The Vancouver-based company, which operates more than a dozen pubs, clubs and restaurants in Vancouver and Toronto under the Freehouse Collective, said Wednesday it has started proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) to revise the terms of existing loans and restructure debt it needed to take on to survive COVID-19.

The Donnelly Group has opted to initiate the creditor protection process to restructure to avoid closing locations and laying off employees, said company founder and CEO Jeff Donnelly.

“We could have gone one of two directions. We could have, frankly, just closed a bunch of our businesses and just stuck with the real winners, and we would have been OK,” Donnelly said Wednesday. “But we might have lost half of our workforce. And when you’ve got 800 employees, that just wasn’t an option for us.

“This is what we need to do to keep these places open, so we’re going to do it,” Donnelly said. “We’re going to come out stronger than we were before.”

In a petition filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday, the company asked the court to appoint Ernst & Young as a monitor over its affairs as it works out a restructuring plan with its creditors.

The petition involves 12 pubs, cocktail clubs and restaurants in Vancouver — including the Lamplighter, Butcher & Bullock, and Brass Fish — and two in Toronto, as well as three Barber & Co barbershops, Bomber Brewing in East Vancouver, and a company that handles the cleaning of the hospitality venues.

In total, 750 people are employed in Freehouse’s hospitality venues, 40 at Bomber Brewing, and 25 at Barber & Co.

A retail cannabis business also owned by Donnelly, called Lightbox and doing business as Dutch Love, is subject to separate insolvency proceedings, after applying for creditor protection late last year.

The company said the move was necessary to survive the crippling economic impact wrought by the pandemic on the hospitality industry.

It will work on a restructuring plan and streamline operations in the next couple months as part of the proceedings, but expects to continue operations at its locations and “engage its employees at current levels during the CCAA proceeding and afterwards.”

The company said its decision to restructure isn’t a reflection of its employees but a “strategic response to the industry-wide impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

B.C. Restaurant and Foodservices Association head Ian Tostenson said Donnelly’s entrepreneurship and vision were worthy of him being named to the B.C. Restaurant Hall of Fame pre-pandemic, but the expansion into barber shops, cannabis and brewing proved costly with the COVID downturn.

“It was working then in that economy,” said Tostenson. “You could fuel that kind of machine, that kind of business then.”

He noted the whole industry got hit hard, acting as “a bit of a canary in the coal mine” for retail generally because of closures, capacity limits and other challenges.

Then, when customers started coming back, inflation hit along with supply chain challenges, increasing labour costs and a shortage of workers.

“We’re seeing bankruptcies up 116 per cent year-over- year,” said Tostenson, and less than 50 per cent of all restaurants in a recent survey were making money.

Bert Hick, a liquor and cannabis licensing expert who heads Rising Tide Consultants, said he is “saddened” by the news and fears for the whole hospitality industry.

“A lot of it was COVID,” said Hick, but it’s also labour shortages, rising costs and the looming payback of pandemic financial supports from the federal government.

“It’s a bit of a perfect storm,” said Hick. “The hospitality industry is very, very fragile right now. My prediction is you’re going to hear more horror stories in the coming months” with the COVID relief payments coming due at the end of the year.

“A lot of business owners took those loans on the premise (business) would come back,” noted Tostenson. “And it did for a couple of months, but then inflation kicked in.”

Hick and Tostenson both praised the Donnelly Group as exemplary operators with an impeccable record in the industry.

Like most in the hospitality industry, the Donnelly Group’s businesses were shuttered in March 2020 as a result of the pandemic and reopened gradually in the following years.

According to Donnelly Group’s petition filed this week, the businesses were able to maintain payment of debts until 2021, when they negotiated an agreement with BMO, the primary lender, to make monthly interest-only payments.

Once venues reopened in 2022, the businesses faced further economic challenges due to hikes in the minimum wage, supply chain issues, and rising insurance and interest rates.

Revenues have returned to 2019 levels, increased labour and operational costs mean thinner margins and a lower profit, said the company.

The hospitality entities listed in the petition currently owe BMO about $13.6 million, while Bomber Brewing owes $1.25 million, according to the petition. Their monthly debt servicing payments total about $295,000 a month.

While the petitioners have been able to make interest-only payments to BMO following a 2021 agreement with the bank, they “are not in a position to make principal repayments on a go-forward basis,” said the petition.

BMO supports Donnelly’s restructuring, and the lender has agreed in principle to restructure the company’s payments during the process, the petition says: “BMO benefits by the continued operation of the enterprise by present management, which represents its best prospect of recovery.”

Donnelly is also in arrears with some landlords to the tune of about $766,000, is in arrears for PST, and faces lawsuits from landlords and other creditors.

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-pub-chain-donnelly-group-seeks-creditor-protection