Alcohol permit (Quebec)

The Act respecting liquor permits names the permits issued under it: the bar permit, restaurant permit, accessory permit, event permit, grocery permit, cider seller’s permit, and winemaking and brewing centre permit. The Government may also set other permits by regulation. A bar permit authorizes, as the principal activity in an establishment, the sale of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises. A restaurant permit authorizes, in an establishment whose principal and usual activity is to prepare and sell food on the premises, the sale of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises if they are generally served as an accompaniment to the food, among the activities section 27 lists.

When the business changes hands

Section 78 says no permit may be used by a person other than its holder. Section 79 lets the Régie temporarily authorize someone else to use a permit in the cases it lists, among them the liquidator of the holder’s succession, a trustee in bankruptcy, and a person who files that request with an application for a permit made by reason of the alienation or rental of the establishment, or its retaking of possession following the exercise of a right to take in payment or a similar agreement; the Régie may refuse if it has initiated proceedings to suspend or cancel the permit or an application to that effect has been made to it. The Régie’s own pages say a person who intends to use a permit in their establishment must apply to it, and that a request for a cession or modification (demande de cession ou de modification) is processed in steps similar to a new application. See does a liquor licence transfer when you buy a bar or restaurant.

What to ask

• Which permit does the establishment hold, and does it match the activity being bought?
• Is the buyer applying for a cession or a new permit, and what does the Régie need?
• Who may lawfully operate between closing and the Régie’s decision?