Supporting Local Restaurants and Bars
Permanently allowing alcohol with food takeout and delivery
Ontario’s vibrant hospitality sector and its workers have been hit hard by COVID-19.
Local restaurants and bars are essential to community life in Ontario. That’s why our PC government is delivering permanent changes to support jobs and workers at local restaurants, bars, breweries, wineries, and distilleries.
The measures will expand opportunities in alcohol sales, including making the sale of alcohol with food takeout and delivery orders permanent. This will ensure Ontarians have more ways of supporting the province’s vibrant hospitality sector during the COVID-19 recovery and beyond. Additional permanent reforms for the hospitality sector will allow:
- alcohol service on docked boats by operators with a liquor sales licence;
- reduced minimum pricing of spirits consumed on-site, to align with the reduced pricing introduced for takeout and delivery orders;
- the length of time for temporary patio extensions to be set out by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), and,
- for a requirement that ensures third parties delivering from licensed restaurants and bars have a delivery licence.
As a result of these changes, frontline workers in Ontario’s vibrant hospitality sector will be able to count on expanded opportunities to contribute to the recovery of communities across our province.
Our PC government is also supporting businesses by:
- removing restrictive rules to allow for the delivery of alcoholic beverages in food boxes and meal kits;
- allowing eligible alcohol manufacturers to deliver their own products and charge a delivery fee,
- allowing restaurants and bars to offer mixed cocktails and growlers as part of a takeout or delivery order; and,
- permitting eligible manufacturers to sell spirits and 100 per cent Ontario wine at farmers’ markets.