Doug Ford, offering a solution for a non-existent issue

There’s an old phrase that describes something which is trivial, trifling, inconsequential and of no importance. It’s “small beer.”

Doug Ford’s promise of “buck-a-beer” is small beer. With much fanfare and loads of self-congratulations, Ontario’s premier announced this week that his Progressive Conservative government was keeping an election campaign pledge and, as of Aug. 27, would allow the province’s brewers to once again sell a bottle of suds for a mere loonie.

Those dastardly Liberals had raised the price floor for beer from a dollar a bottle to $1.25 back in 2008 with “another piece of red tape,” the premier fumed. But a return to buck-a-beer would be his gift to hardworking Ontarians who love a bargain as well as a brew.

In this case, however, cheap beer is just cheap politics. Ford’s offering a solution to a non-existent problem.

To be sure, Ontario faces major challenges today. Unaffordable beer isn’t one of them. In contrast, more and more people fear home ownership is out of reach. Many poor Ontarians can’t even afford to rent.

What’s Ontario’s plan to fight climate change in this summer of heat waves and wildfires raging across the Northern Hemisphere, especially since Ford is killing the previous government’s cap-andtrade program?

What about Toronto’s epidemic of handgun violence? And how will Ford balance the deficit-ridden provincial budget and start chipping away at the debt mountain?

Don’t worry Ontario. Chill out. By Labour Day you can have a cold buck-a-beer in your hands again. At least if you can find one.

Keep in mind this government isn’t lowering the price of beer. It’s just cutting a bottle’s minimal price to a dollar. Many brewers have already said they can’t afford to do that without losing money. So they won’t.

The world’s changed since 2008. The costs of ingredients for beer along with workers’ wages have risen. New American tariffs on aluminum have hiked the price for beer tins. Then, there are government taxes. They’ve risen, too.

In Ontario, a typical case of 24 now has a hefty tax of $18.78 on it. That leaves little room for profit for a brewery trying to sell a case that size for $24.

Ford does have the power to lower beer prices considerably by cutting the provincial taxes on the product. Of course, he’s not considering that because provincial coffers gain close to $600 million a year from beer and alcohol taxes. There’s no way Ford wants to surrender any of that cash.

So here’s the rub: Ford is counting on the brewers to do the heavy-lifting to put buck-a-beer on the shelf. Perhaps some will do so in response to new government incentives, such as offering promotional support and more prominent displays at the provincially-owned LCBO stores for beers lowered to $1. But what will we have really gained out of all this?

For now, the promise of buck-a-beer sounds more like an insult than a favour. Does Ford really think this is a priority for Ontarians? Is he trying to distract us by waving a shiny trinket in front our eyes?

And does he think cheaper beer will console those struggling to get by on low incomes? After all, this is the man who just cut in half a previously promised three-per-cent increase in welfare payments. His priorities are disturbing.

As government initiatives go, this one tastes flat and distinctly unsatisfying. If Ford continues this way, we’re afraid Ontarians will soon be crying in their buck-a-beer.