Province hires teens to ensure merchants check IDs

Minors are being paid to try buying lottery tickets, cannabis and liquor from Manitoba retailers.

The Liquor Gaming and Cannabis Authority of Manitoba that regulates those sales launched the “minors as agents” program two years ago, with undercover 16- to 18-year-olds trying to buy lottery tickets from licensed retailers.

The minors work alongside LGCA inspectors to test how licensees check identification.

The youths try to buy regulated products, allowing inspectors to monitor licensees’ compliance with prohibitions on underage sales. The purpose is to ensure sellers check for identification that proves a buyer’s age.

It was such a success that the program expanded to include licensed cannabis and liquor retailers in 2024-25.

“Public safety is at the core of our regulatory mandate, with a particular emphasis on safeguarding young people from age-restricted products,” LGCA executive director and CEO Kristianne Dechant said in the authority’s latest annual report.

“After last year’s successful initial focus on lottery ticket retailers, the program was extended this year to include licensed cannabis and liquor retailer inspections.”

Dechant was not made available for an interview.

The Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth has sounded the alarm over rising rates of addiction and its related harms in the province. Advocacy requests for youth living with addictions jumped to 22 per cent from three per cent in the past five years, the advocate reported in 2024.

Changes made in December 2021 to the Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Control Act allowed minors hired by the LGCA to purchase products of the industries it regulates, spokesperson Lisa Hansen said Friday.

“Licensees must request identification from anyone who appears to be a minor and is attempting to purchase liquor, provincial gaming products or cannabis, or enter an age-restricted licensed premises or business,” Hansen said in an email.

The legal age for buying cannabis is 19 in Manitoba. For liquor and commercial gaming, it’s 18.

“Minor agents conducting these inspections confirm without a doubt that a minor has been identified by a licensee or a minor was sold a regulated product.”

Hansen said the authority hires two to three minors as agents at a time for the program. The positions are posted and the current hourly wage is $19.16. Manitoba’s minimum wage is $16.

The authority launched the program with undercover minors trying to buy lottery tickets from retailers who are “lower-risk licensees,” Hansen said. “The businesses that sell lottery tickets normally allow minors to be present, so these are familiar environments to minors as agents, and LGCA inspectors can generally observe the agent throughout the entire transaction.”

After the minors as agents program launched in September 2023, 370 lottery ticket retailers were inspected with 90 breaches reported that first year.

In 2024-25, 24 of the 89 lottery ticket retailers inspected — 27 per cent — were found to be in breach of the prohibition of selling age-restricted products to kids. That same year, 25 of the 167 youth-inspected cannabis retailers — 15 per cent — failed to check for ID. No breaches were reported at the 25 liquor retailers inspected.

No fines were meted out to any of the retailers who didn’t check the minors for ID, Hansen said.

“For all industries that we regulate, the LGCA uses a progressive discipline model with an educative approach,” she said.

“Licensees found in breach through the minors as agents program were given a written warning and provided with required training to ensure they are reminded of their responsibilities for the prohibitions on under-age sales,” Hansen said.

The fledgling program deploying undercover kids has so far not detected any repeat offenders, she said.

“The training reinforces and reminds the licensees of their responsibility to ensure regulated products are not sold to minors or young people,” the LGCA annual report said.

Under the Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Control Act, supplying cannabis to a young person under age 19 in Manitoba comes with a preset fine of $2,542.

Those under age 19 found to be in possession of cannabis in Manitoba face a $672 fine.

A corporation that sells liquor to a minor faces a minimum fine of $5,000, plus court costs. A person who sells or buys alcohol for a minor faces a minimum fine of $2,000, plus costs.

In Manitoba, licensees who sell lottery tickets to those under the age of 18 are subject to a fine of up to $100,000 for an individual and up to $500,000 for a corporation. The LGCA could also suspend or revoke the retailer’s licence.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca