Problem drinking and ‘sin taxes’
It’s a good thing Ontarians like their vices, otherwise how would we fund hospitals, sports and recreation centres and all manner of other good things?
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation is ready and willing to remind us that we’re doing our part when we pop into the corner store or stop off at the lotto kiosk to buy our lottery tickets, head to the slots, or — coming soon to a neighbourhood near you — a shiny new casino. The message about what good things grow in Ontario when we indulge in a little state-sponsored gambling comes in commercials or print advertisements that stand on their own, away from those Fantasy Island TV spots where a manic voices screams from the screen, “We won Lotto 6-49!,” and we all dream on.
If we all stopped playing the lotto, or quit feigning interest in Ontario’s version of Las Vegas’s one-armed bandits and craps tables, would our hospitals close and our arenas be shuttered? Of course not, but the province would have to find the revenue elsewhere. Higher taxes anyone?
Similarly with booze. Despite the on-again, off-again mutterings about privatizing the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, there’s no disputing that our government-run liquor stores are profitable ventures. So profitable, in fact, that the Ontario Medical Association wants the LCBO to pay it forward and cough up some of the anticipated $100 million in increased revenues this year for programs that would discourage heavy drinking among teens and young adults and try to curb problem drinking among older citizens.
Those profits are a lot of scratch (and not scratch-and-win), indicating that Ontarians like their liquor, wine and beer. If there were even greater consumption, it would stand to reason that there would be even more money to pinch for “harm reduction programs” — in addition to more cash for roads, schools and hospitals that now benefit from alcohol sales.
The Ontario Medical Association, to its credit, will be highlighting the social and health costs of heavy drinking in this province in its latest policy paper, which will be released April 17. And to its credit again, recommendations from the association’s report about integrating alcohol awareness programs in secondary and post-secondary schools and increasing such programs for those who are not in school are commendable. But this comes down to a matter of funding, and raking off money from the liquor control board to pay for these programs is dubious.
The liquor control board already has an array of responsible drinking programs in place, and underage drinkers trying to buy a mickey at the liquor store know their chances of succeeding are usually much slimmer than winning a megamillion-dollar lottery because of scrupulous ID checks.
Remember “sin taxes”? In virtually every provincial budget cycle there would be an increase in such taxes on cigarettes and alcohol. Taxpayers would grumble, then shrug and continue smoking and boozing. But they are user taxes — and in the case of cigarette and alcohol, there are a lot of users.
If the province is serious about partnering with the medical association in this harm reduction venture to address problem drinking, it could consider a moderate increase in alcohol taxes to fund it. But in the current political climate, that could be a hard sell.