Underaged youths employed by the B.C. liquor control and licensing branch managed to obtain booze about 30 per cent of the time during a nine-month period last year, freedom-of-information documents show.
The branch issued a total of 57 contravention notices following 184 inspection under the "minors as agents" program from March 31 to Dec. 31, 2013, the documents show.
Bars/night clubs and licensed restaurants had among the worst rates of non-compliance: 10 contraventions for 22 inspections, or 45 per cent, for bars/night clubs; 20 for 43 inspections for licensed restaurants, or 47 per cent.
Even government liquor stores flouted the law, providing booze to minors on five of 22 occasions, or 23 per cent of the time.
Private beer-and-wine stores had 20 violations for 84 inspections, a failure rate of 24 per cent. Two inspections at private stores selling only wine led to one contravention, or 50 per cent.
Rural agency stores had the best record: just one contravention for 11 inspections, or nine per cent.
The latest compliance figures are considerably higher than those reported under the minors as agents program for the fiscal year 2011/2012, when government liquor stores had a non-compliance rate of four per cent compared with 16 per cent for private beer-and-wine stores.
The province recently announced it would be liberalizing liquor laws in the province, including by allowing booze in grocery stores and allowing children in pubs with their parents.
In 2010, the province amended the Liquor Control and Licensing Act to provide for minors working for the government to legally purchase liquor to test compliance.
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