AllNovaScotia (paid subscription required) is reporting that the Nova Scotia Liquor Corp is looking to combine the small Clyde Street liquor store with the Port of Wine outlet on Doyle Street into a new 15,000 sq. ft. "flagship store" somewhere along the Spring Garden corridor. The prime locale for the new store? The old infirmary site at Queen and Spring Garden.
Which just happens to be the proposed site of a new municipal library.
I'd guess that what's going on here is the province is upping the stakes a bit, in hope of getting a better deal with the city in the proposed real estate swap involving the old infirmary site and the former QE2 High School site on the Common. The province owns the infirmary site, the city owns the high school; the city would take over the infirmary site for the library, while the province gets the Common land under the high school to build a parking garage for the QEII Health Sciences Centre.
Possibly, the province thinks that if the city sees the infirmary land being considered for the provincially owned liquor commission, they can get quicker movement and a better price from the city, and get around some citizen apprehension about using Common land for a parking lot.
Still, the optics are all wrong: booze instead of books? That just ain't gonna fly.