Beer-tax announcement expected within days

With the deadline to 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 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.