Much like spring in these parts, the corner-store beer blow back is raining down fast and hard.
But that didn’t stop Ontario’s Conservative government from passing legislation that terminates its contract with the Beer Store, ushering in beer and other alcohol sales into corner stores, big-box retail outlets and privately owned shops.
The Ford administration also announced June 6 that upward of 200 new LCBO stores, rebranded as LCBO Convenience outlets, will be open for business by spring 2020, 60 of which are green-lighted for August.
As well, 87 additional grocery stores in the province will be able to sell alcohol in September.
Public opinion research on the subject conducted independently by marketing research firm Abacus Data shows that just more than half of Ontarians surveyed supported expanding alcohol sales into convenience stores, with support highest among Ontarians under the age of 45, regular consumers of alcohol, and among Progressive Conservative and Liberal party voters.
But not everyone is convinced that increased access to alcohol will prove beneficial to consumers and the economy.
“Personally, I don’t like that it will be available in convenience stores,” MADD York Region chapter president Katie Apreda said. “Convenience stores are open early and close really late and they are everywhere. It will be very hard to control the amount of alcohol being sold.”
Apreda also said she’s concerned that with more places to purchase alcohol for longer periods of time, it increases the risk of alcohol “getting into the wrong hands of those who are behind the wheel”.
On a health-related note, the pan-partisan local activist group Common Ground York Region, whose members have been demonstrating every Friday outside Newmarket-Aurora MPP Christine Elliott’s constituency office over cuts to public services, is concerned about the number of alcohol-related deaths in Ontario.
Research shows, Common Ground spokesperson Jon Aston said, that 32,897 hospitalizations in Ontario each year are alcohol-related.
“The Minister of Health and Long Term Care, Christine Elliott, is clearly more committed to Premier Doug Ford’s destructive brand of populist idiocy than she is to the health and well-being of the people she is supposed to represent at Queen’s Park,” Aston said. “Peddling beer and booze in corner stores while championing cuts to vital public services is just the latest piece of evidence.”
Meanwhile, the Newmarket Chamber of Commerce this week joined the Ontario and U.S. chambers in its concern about the Ford government’s plan to cancel the province’s 10-year contract with the Beer Store, not set to expire until 2025.
“The Newmarket Chamber of Commerce supports the Ontario government’s approach of modernizing the sale of alcoholic beverages as an important objective to ensure a more competitive marketplace,” chamber president and CEO Tracy Walter said. “However, breaking a legitimate contract without any evidence is short-sighted.”
What’s more, Walter said the government’s move could cost the province to break the contract at a time when it’s trying to reduce costs and find efficiencies in spending.
Industry experts say the Ontario government could be subject to hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties if it terminates the agreement struck by the former Liberal government in 2015 with the Beer Store’s three multinational majority big brew owners Molson-Coors, Labatt, and Sleeman. That deal made it possible for beer, cider, and wine to be sold in about 450 grocery stores in Ontario.
“We do not feel this is the right approach to take,” Walter said. “We are calling on the government, before they proceed with the Master Framework Agreement (MFA) termination, to create a comprehensive evidence-based plan with input from stakeholders and the business community to expand market access.”
“There are a number of factors beyond access that need to be considered in a comprehensive plan,” Walter added.
In a May 29, 2019 letter to Finance Minister Victor Fedeli, Ontario Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Rocco Rossi laid out its members’ concerns, including that the government take a strategic, rather than a piecemeal approach to alcohol policy, and that cancelling a contract sends an “alarming message” to Ontario’s business community and beyond which could potentially deter investment here.
“A complex challenge like alcohol sales modernization requires a comprehensive solution,” Rossi writes. “...We look forward to continuing to work together to support evidence-based policies that strengthen Ontario’s business competitiveness and economic prosperity.”
The Ontario chamber will release a report later this month, prepared with input from industry stakeholders, that digs into the regulatory and policy issues regarding all four categories of beverage alcohol – beer, wine, cider, and spirits.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also weighed in this week with a strongly worded letter to Ford warning against nixing the contract with the Beer Store.
“Our strong concern is that terminating an existing contract, and doing so without compensation, something we understand is proposed in the case of the ‘Bringing Choice and Fairness to the People Act’, risks sending a negative signal to U.S. and other international investors about the business and investment climate in Ontario,” wrote the chamber’s senior vice-president for the Americas, Neil Herrington.
Touted as a move that will offer more choice, more convenience, and fairness for beer and wine consumers, the Ontario government on June 6 stated in a news release that the new stores will provide economic opportunities for businesses across the province, while offering local craft brewers and wineries greater reach and visibility.
"Whether driving to the cottage or running errands, consumers across Ontario will now have more places to pick up beer, wine and other alcoholic beverages," Finance Minister Vic Fedeli said. "Our government is committed to delivering greater choice and convenience to individuals and families, and this expansion is just the beginning."
To date, the Ford administration has:
- Let sports fans drink alcohol at tailgating parties at eligible sporting events.
- Enabled municipalities to make rules about alcohol consumption in public spaces like parks.
- Extended hours of alcohol service at licensed establishments, allowing them to start serving alcohol at 9 a.m.
- Let the Beer Store, LCBO and other authorized retailers, such as grocery stores and agency stores, sell alcohol from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week.
- Changed advertising rules to allow for “happy hour” in Ontario.
- Provided flexibility for wineries, cideries, breweries and distilleries to promote their products at manufacturing sites by removing the prescribed serving sizes for “by the glass” licences.
- Paused beer and wine tax hikes initiated by the previous government.
- Lowered the price floor to allow brewers to sell beer for $1 (Buck-a-beer).
