National Post (National Edition)
Ontario’s liquor board needs to go
One of the signature promises from Premier Doug Ford’s recent campaign in Ontario was the resurrection of socalled “buck a beer.”
The Progressive Conservatives’ vow to lower the price floor on beer to $1 a can was part of a comprehensive pitch to voters to prioritize their pocketbooks. But as long as the newly elected government is ready to make decisive steps to solve the issue of Ontario’s antiquated liquor industry, they should set aside the small stuff and take dead aim at the bigger picture: Ontario’s monopoly on liquor sales should come to an end.
Liquor control boards, like the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), are a relic from the postprohibition era. The limited product selection, banker’s hours at retail stores and steep prices were supposedly the cost of keeping boozefuelled mayhem off our streets.
Several studies have confirmed that jurisdictions with government monopolies on liquor are no safer or better off than those without. One by the Frontier Centre comparing privatized Alberta and government-run Saskatchewan found no link between liquor privatization and crime rates. It also reported that the number of drinkers between 1994 and 2004 went up much faster in Saskatchewan and Quebec, up five per cent and 10 per cent respectively, than in Alberta, up only three per cent, in the same time frame. And in 2016, Statistics Canada reported Alberta having lower numbers of alcoholimpaired driving incidents than Ontario.
Monopoly advocates also like to claim private models cannibalize government revenues. This is simply false. In 1992, the last full year of the Alberta government’s liquor store monopoly, it collected $405 million in tax revenue off alcohol sales. That adjusts to $633 million in 2018 terms. In fiscal 201718, the industry paid $866 million in taxes. That means government revenues have jumped a whopping 37 per cent under a private model in Alberta. And according to Statistics Canada data from 2014, Alberta also enjoyed over 15 per cent higher revenue per capita from sales of all types of alcoholic beverages than Ontario.
This is all by way of saying the LCBO, like the Alberta Liquor Control Board before it, needs to go.
Ford wants to make alcohol cheaper? Excellent. He should also make it more convenient, more profitable, and more abundant. This has been Alberta’s experience since we privatized our liquor industry in 1993.
As Albertans, we enjoy the broadest selection and widest availability of beverages anywhere in Canada. And it’s consumers, not bureaucrats, who decide what sells here. Before privatization, Alberta had roughly 200 liquor stores selling 2,200 products. Today, we have just under 1,500 stores stocking a total of 24,334 wines, beers, spirits and liqueurs. There are also over 350 different types of Ontario wine on our shelves. And the same holds true for beer.
Thanks to our open market with no barriers to entry, Alberta has become a mecca for brewers looking to perfect their craft and make their fortune, much to the delight of the partaking public. We not only have an unfettered flow of beer coming in from other provinces but also internationally from different countries. One particular store in Calgary, alone, has more beer varieties than in the entire province of Ontario. Which leads to the question, should we not allow products from across the country to be sold in Canada’s largest province?
This year, Alberta will celebrate 25 years of privatized alcohol and our most recent public satisfaction survey confirms it was absolutely the right decision. Fully 84 per cent of Albertans are happy with the industry as it functions today.
Slightly cheaper beer should only be the start of it. This new government has the opportunity to take a bold step in following Alberta’s lead into the modern era. It should end Ontario’s alcohol monopoly — supporting greater consumer choice and reducing bureaucratic interference so that the people of Ontario can enjoy wine and beer selections from across Canada and beyond, instead of blocking their access and choice.
SLIGHTLY CHEAPER BEER SHOULD ONLY BE THE START OFIT. — MARTINEZ