Liquor Licence Numbers -  How many liquor licences should a liquor board approve for a given area?  This question is raised regularly by communities when problems are experienced with a licence holder, most often when the licence holder does not enforce the liquor licence conditions.

LiquorWise have found that liquor boards differ worldwide on the way in which they decide to approve liquor licence applications.   Some do not seem to take into account the number of existing liquor licences and other liquor boards strictly adhere to a pre-determined formula.

But what to do if the population of the area decreases?   Does the Liquor Board have to cancel or revoke liquor licences to ensure strict compliance with the pre-determined formula?     Luckily not.   The liquor board doesn’t take away existing licenses in such cases.  Instead, liquor licences are eliminated as they are turned in or revoked for other reasons.  The result is that communities with declining populations where the pre-determined formula is used often end up having more liquor licence holders per capita.   

LiquorWise, national liquor licence experts, have found that most communities do not mind it if the number of liquor licences increase (whether according to a pre-determined formula or not), as long as the liquor licence holder contributes its share to the community by adhering to liquor licence conditions, cleaning up the licensed premises and possibly assisting those less privileged.

 (Article by LiquorWise)