This week’s front-page story actually contains the words “industry” and “boom” in the same headline. And since the story is not about the type of boom that requires emergency responders, we find it very encouraging news indeed that the Sunshine Coast is enjoying a significant expansion in any industry, and that fully applies to the subject of the story – the craft beverage industry.
Following the pioneering example of the Persephone Brewing Company, which opened its barn doors in 2013 and is still going strong, Gibsons Tapworks is planning a soft opening in the Landing later this month, the Bricker Cider Company is expecting to be operating in West Sechelt this spring, and a major brewery and distillery is scheduled to launch in Upper Gibsons by early summer, complete with a full kitchen and seating for about 100 people.
The investors run the gamut from young entrepreneurs to a family concern to established developers from the Lower Mainland. What they all have in common is a demonstrated faith in the Sunshine Coast as a place to set up business. To get to this point, they have had to jump through a lot of regulatory hoops, and still they’ve persevered. The Town of Gibsons deserves credit for being thoughtfully accommodating toward a sector that has its detractors, and it was heartening to read developer David Longman’s observation that the “provincial bureaucrats were a pleasure to work with” in securing approvals for his ambitious project, destined for the former Bob’s Automotive site in Upper Gibsons.
Less accommodating has been the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC). As reported early last month, Persephone faces eviction from the Agricultural Land Reserve for failing to meet the ALC’s rules calling for the company to grow 50 per cent of its ingredients on the Stewart Road site. A smaller scale craft distillery proposed for Chamberlin Road, also in West Howe Sound, faces the same roadblock. Persephone is pushing for the province to change those rules, and the Sunshine Coast Regional District is backing that effort. Given the economic and social benefits “beer farms” can provide, the province should move quickly to find a remedy.
Private-sector economic growth is an elusive animal these days, and while craft breweries, distilleries and cideries are not everyone’s cup of tea, they create jobs, put new dollars in circulation and give a much-needed boost to the local tax base.
We raise our glass to these entrepreneurs.
