Booze for Sale

Petition asking for liquor store on Long Island and Digby Neck


Curious onlookers gathered to watch the first load of beer come off the truck and into Brier Island’s new NSLC agency store. Jonathan Riley photo
Published on June 10, 2011
Published on June 10, 2011
Jonathan Riley Residents of Long Island and Digby Neck want a place to buy alcohol, too. They say the recent decision by the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation to put an agency store on Brier Island did little for them.

Topics : Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation , Store in Centre Grove , Long Island , Brier Island , Freeport
Ossinger’s Store in Centre Grove, in the middle of Long Island, used to sell alcohol but closed this spring.

The NSLC put out a tender on April 4 asking for proposals for an agency store in the Digby Neck area, from Sandy Cove to Brier Island.

Two stores applied for the tender: R. E. Robicheau’s on Brier Island run by Wally and Joyce DeVries, and Long Island Trading in Tiverton on the eastern end of Long Island, run by Stanton Seamone.

On May 27, the NSLC announced that they had accepted the DeVries’ bid and they started selling alcohol on June 7.

Karen Crocker of Freeport has no problem with Brier Island getting a store but she doesn’t see how it helps people on Digby Neck and Long Island.

She started a petition requesting the NSLC maintain at least the level of service the people of Long Island had grown accustomed to.

Stanton Seamone who runs Long Island Trading says there were 138 signatures on the petition in his store and another 80 or so in Freeport on June 9.

David Tudor of Freeport is the municipal councilor for district four which covers Brier and Long islands and Digby Neck down past Little River. He says he is happy that Brier Island has a store, but he would have been happier if both stores had been accepted.

“I thought there was room for both stores. Now for people in East Ferry it means two ferry trips. So this doesn’t help them really.”

Rick Perkins, spokesperson for the NSLC, says Robicheau’s won the contract through a public tender process and any unsuccessful applicants can, upon request, receive an explanation and a debriefing on their submission.

The request for proposals states that potential stores must be at least 10 kilometres from any agent in any other community, and at least 13 kilometres from the closest existing NSLC store.

The request for proposals, including selection criteria, is available here online