It dates from yesterday with Catherine Lachaussée 100 years of the SAQ: sparkling beginnings in several anecdotes!<

The Liqueurs Commission appears in a climate of large social tensions, where several issues of morality and public health dominate.Alcoholism is then a real scourge, which no one seems able to overcome. Les gouvernements ont beau sévir depuis la fin du 19^e siècle, plus les mesures se resserrent, plus les problèmes d’ivrognerie et de contrebande prennent de l’ampleur.

It is then the prohibition that is popular. En 1919, 92 % des municipalités du Québec limitent ou interdisent la consommation d’alcool, précise l’historien Yannick Cormier, spécialiste de l’histoire policière.

A referendum voted that year still made it possible to consume wine, cider and beer, but no strong alcohol.You could only get medical purposes, or to make household products.In this context, smuggling is more popular than ever.And as no one oversees production, the quality of the product is often doubtful.Even she kills the customer.

Many smugglers arrived from abroad, notably by the Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon islands or by the American border.But home production was not outdone. Depuis des siècles, beaucoup de gens étaient capables de fabriquer leur propre alcool à partir de fruits ou de pommes de terre, explique Cormier.Our ancestors, who rarely had the chance to live near a grocery store, had ended up developing a certain self -sufficiency in the matter.

It is in this context that Louis-Alexandre Taschereau, Liberal Prime Minister, decides to favor a daring path.Rather than restricting more access to alcohol, he wants to allow Quebecers to drink, but responsible.In short, he wants to trust their judgment.The idea is against the tide of everything that is then done in North America.She immediately arouses her share of concerns.

On the one hand, people are furious to see the government mingle with trade and take the monopoly on the sale of alcohol.The supporters of morality also see a dangerous door open to debauchery.

A company built at a phenomenal speed

The site created by the government is gigantic, which does not prevent the company from being operational in barely two months!

A reduced team of 15 people only have a few weeks to buy all alcohol stocks in the territory, classify them, find huge warehouses and sign the leases of future stores.Hundreds of people must be hired in sectors as varied as traffic jams, transport, sale and laboratory analysis.It is also necessary to grant the sales permits, a laborious process.Each request must be accompanied by the recommendation of a parish priest, the municipal council, a doctor or a notary.

Le 1^er mai 1921, la Commission des liqueurs de Québec a recruté ses 415 premiers employés.In one year, 64 stores are open.

Wine in Quebec ... but not in Lévis

The supply of alcohol is first of all very unequal from one region to another.The sale may be authorized on a provincial scale, many municipalities oppose it, even if it means preventing the opening of stores in the Liqueurs Commission on their territory.

While you can quietly buy your bottles in Quebec, you cannot do it in Lévis or Beauport or Limoilou.For a long time, Saguenay, Charlevoix and Rimouski have no point of sale.In the 1920s, the most east branch of the province was in Rivière-du-Loup.

The lack of points of sale also arouses many complaints at the time.

To overcome the weaknesses of the network, two branches specialize in remote controls, one in Montreal and the other in Quebec.That of the capital is located on rue Saint-Joseph.She lives in the prestigious headquarters of Quebec Railway, the Quebec Tramway Company, which has since become the Joseph-Ernest Grégoire building.

A little mass wine with that?

The Liqueurs Commission also, in Quebec and Montreal, two fully dedicated branches ... Mass wine!Their supply is placed under the supervision of the Reverend Father Morin, dean of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Montreal.The church therefore has at its disposal a separate network, which it can manage according to its tastes and its good will.

Le révérend père s’occupait des inspections du vin et pouvait faire enlever du stock toutes les pièces qui ne lui paraissent pas de la qualité requise pour le service divin, précise un rapport annuel de la Commission.Address the clergy, a player influential of time, was a priority for any wise government.

Branches to the air of confessional

The original concept of the Liqueurs Commission is clearly dictated by morality.The first branches have a real little confessional air.A grid separates employees customers.The goods are sold wrapped, tied and sealed.And you can only buy a bottle of spirits at the same time.

Which does not prevent small sprains with the rules.

The newspapers report the case of customers returned several times at the counter to buy more than one bottle.Nothing prevented a branch tour either.The rule of the unique bottle was applied only to spirits, considered more dangerous than wine because of their high alcohol content, however..

Bulk wines bottled in Quebec… from 1921

The contemporary amateur would have found the offer of wine from the rather modest liqueurs commission.We will have to wait before getting your hands on new world products.The offer is first limited to a few European wines, the most exotic of which come from Switzerland or Holland.The international component was entrusted to a Paris office.

We already made substantial savings by buying certain bulk products to bottle them here, including some whiskeys, and several wines, from which the laboratory experts created homemade mixtures.

Booting and labeling activities, located in Montreal, made it possible to run the local paper, cardboard and glass industry.In the hope of limiting smuggling, the commission even had its own paper manufactured.The bottling plant affiliated to the Crown Company will only be sold to the private sector at the turn of the 2000s.

The tourist: a client sought

The new alcohol offer in the province plays an important role in the development of tourism, especially in Montreal, where several branches do gold business.

This is also the case for those located along the Ontarian and American borders.

Taschereau also boasts in an article published in the New York Times, in 1922. Il se disait fier de voir de nombreux hôtels apparaître et se développer grâce à l’afflux de clients américains et canadiens venus profiter de la Commission des liqueurs, rappelle l’historien Yannick Cormier.

Very at its business, the Commission will also impose a standard alcohol card on all hotels and lodgings, and will also make sure to offer alcohol on trains and boats.

The goose that lays golden eggs

When he creates the Liqueurs Commission, Taschereau is not interested in the sale of alcohol. Son approche était très interventionniste. Elle couvrait plusieurs domaines, comme l’assistance publique, certains soins de santé, le financement des universités et la construction de chemins de fer, énumère l’historien.So many sectors managed so far by the private company and the church.

To finance such an ambitious program, the government had no choice: it had to find new income.

However, from its creation, the Liqueurs Commission seems to have become the hen to the gold that it was looking for.

Of $ 4 million in the first year, profits increased to 20 million in 1929-1930, at the height of American prohibition.

The Liqueurs Commission is also the first state company in Quebec, recalls Christian Blais, historian in the National Assembly. La Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux est plus ancienne, mais c’est une société fédérale précise-t-il.

Products imitated by smugglers

On the pretext of ensuring public health, the government has committed to the fact that legal alcohol stands out from that of smuggling, in terms of taste as well as health.One of the first employees by the Liqueurs Commission would therefore have been ... a chemist.

The Liqueurs Commission praised its laboratory as one of the most efficient in the country.

The reputation of state -owned products is such that some American smugglers have started to imitate the famous stamp of the Liqueurs Commission to sell their merchandise.

But smuggling does not remain a scourge in the United States, at the time.She continued to take place in Quebec throughout the 1920s, despite the legalization of the sale of alcohol.To fight against it, the Liqueurs Commission has acquired, as of its creation, one of its most controversial services: the Liqueurs Police.