Province expected to make statement on beer markup

Deadline nears for Alberta to say how it will make market fair-for-all provinces

With the deadline to CALGARY comply with a legal ruling fast approaching, the Alberta government is to make an announcement within days about the future of its controversial beer markup system.

Last spring, a trade panel quashed an appeal by the government, ruling the province’s practice of offering grants to small Alberta brewers — essentially offsetting the cost of a $1.25-a-litre markup charged to all brewers who sell beer in the province — is unconstitutional, in that it acts as a trade barrier to out-of-province breweries.

The appeal panel gave the government six months to comply with the ruling, meaning the NDP government has until next Thursday to reveal what it intends to do about its beer tax system.

The Government of Alberta has indicated it will announce on Monday measures to provide “new supports for the continued growth of Alberta’s craft beer industry.”

The government has been dogged by legal trouble ever since it first began tinkering with Alberta’s beer markup system in 2015. What had once been a graduated markup system that taxed brewers based on production volume was changed to a flat tax for all brewers with the exception of those in Saskatchewan, B.C. and Alberta.

Facing a backlash, Finance Minister Joe Ceci then announced the flat rate would apply to all Canadian brewers — however, at the same time, the province also created a subsidy program solely for Alberta’s small brewers.

In addition to losing the trade panel ruling — initiated by Artisan Ales, a Calgary-based beer importer that argued the grant program unfairly tilted the market against its products — the government also lost a separate legal case in June.

That was when a Court of Queen’s Bench judge ordered

The government has been dogged by legal trouble ever since it first began tinkering with Alberta’s beer markup system in 2015.

the province to pay a total of $2.1 million in restitution to Great Western Brewing of Saskatoon and Steam Whistle Brewing of Toronto.

The two companies successfully argued Alberta’s beer markup system created a trade barrier against their products.

However, the Alberta government, which is appealing that case, has repeatedly argued its system does not restrict any brewer from selling beer in the province. The government also has said Alberta brewers face barriers in other provinces, where governmentcontrolled liquor stores encourage the promotion and sale of local products above others.