OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following is a letter to the editor and an open letter to Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte MPP Doug Downey.
Here I am again thinking I should be sending deep and heartfelt “thanks” to your Ontario Progressive Conservative government.
I frequently see TV ads in which Premier Doug Ford wakes up each morning and immediately starts thinking about how he can improve my life.
Here is the latest blockbuster idea he has put into reality: how great it will be for me to have beer and other spirits much more conveniently available. I am already anticipating the gas money I will save by not having to drive so far to a current outlet. I have yet to decide how to spend all that saved time and money, but maybe I can spend it enjoying more libations.
While on the topic of saving me money, I am wondering where the $225 million will be coming from that will be given to The Beer Store so that they can pay their employees for doing jobs that will no longer exist. Rumour has it that I, as a taxpayer, will be providing this ‘donation.’ Even taxpayers who do not buy spirits will contribute their fair share, considering 225 million divided by the number of taxpayers comes to a considerable amount, an amount that will far outsize the gas savings I might achieve. If only we could have waited until December 2025 to make the change, we would not have had to make this unnecessary payment. I guess this is the price I have to pay for the new convenience I will have.
It appears that when it comes time for me to cash in my empties, I will have to make the trip to The Beer Store as the small convenience locations won’t be accepting them. It might be more convenient for me to either toss the empties on the side of the road or into the landfill. Convenience will dictate.
Surely, each new location will have the space to provide the wide selection of brands that The Beer Store offers. I hope I will not have to drive great distances and waste time trying to find my favourite brand.
I probably missed it in my overview of the changes, but I am very confident that as part of the new deal, at long last the extensively promised ‘buck-a-beer’ will finally become a reality. Oh, yeah, last election that promise suckered in lots of votes, but this new distribution plan wouldn’t be designed to buy votes, would it?
I think I would prefer it if you stopped coming up with new ideas to make my life better. Thanks, but no thanks.
Jack Pearce
Oro-Medonte
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