Beer sold in grocery stores will not face strict limits, Sousa says

Finance Minister Charles Sousa says the government will not impose "stringent restrictions" on the amount of beer that Ontario grocery stores will be able to sell.

Sousa was responding to a report in the Toronto Star said yearly sales quotaswill limit supermarkets to selling on average fewer than 300 six-packsper day.

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"Let me assure the public we are going to make ampleavailabilityof beer ingrocery stores so that people can have their greater convenienceand, as well, access to beer while being sociallyresponsible," Sousa told reporters on Friday.

"There wont be any limitationthat's going to hamper the distribution ofbeer as we proceed forward."

Ontario's Liberal government said earlier this year it willtry to raise money for transit and infrastructure by selling off a large chunk of Hydro One and opening up the way beer is sold in the province.

The government will also bringin a new beer tax.

The government filed paperwork in advance of the Hydro One sale on Friday.

Selling six-packs

Sousa said the final plans for modernizing beer sales in the province should be ready within weeks and will increase the amount of availability.

The government intends to allow sales of six-packs of beer in up to 450 grocery stores across Ontario by 2018.

The premier's advisory panel on government assets recommended licences restrict beer sales at each grocery store to about $1 million a year, and chains would be able to average the volume sold across all its licensed outlets.

Sousa saidit would be up to the grocers who win the licences to decide where to sell the beer, saying the government won't restrict them in terms of store locations.

He said there will be sufficient and ample amount of availability for consumers when the expanded sales in grocery stores becomes a reality, and stores won't have to worry about hitting a quota wall.