Policy may inadvertently ‘kill’ Canadian whisky

A proposed local alcohol policy in Ontario, Canada, may “accidentally kill off” leading Canadian whisky brands by making beer and wine sales “easier”, the head of a distillers’ trade body has warned.

Diageo’s Crown Royal could be among the Canadian whiskies damaged by a new Ontario alcohol law for wine and beer

Jan H. Westcott, president and CEO of the Association of Canadian Distillers, published an article in The Star hitting out at government plans to allow the sale of beer and wine in 200 to 300 new grocery stores across the province, as the law would not extend to spirits, which would remain only available in designated liquor stores.

“Making the purchase of some kinds of alcohol more convenient than others will change the types of alcohol people drink, and dramatically reduce the amount of spirits sold in Ontario,” said Westcott. “We know this because we have seen it happen in Quebec.”

Westcott claims that before Quebec implemented a similar law spirits were “more popular” among consumers, with a 40% share of the alcohol market.

However, since the legislative changes were made, spirits market share fell to 13%, leading to the closure of a number of Quebec distilleries and the loss of “hundreds of jobs”.

Furthermore, Westcott condemns the decision of Ontario’s government to “provide foreign beer and wine better access to Ontario consumers than it affords products made here by its own citizens from grains grown by Ontario farmers”.

He adds that the province will lose out on tax revenue as spirits carry higher duty rates than wine and beer, with 60% of the CA$1.7bn transferred by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) to the Ontario treasury each year coming from spirits sales.

“The exclusion of spirits is also puzzling given that Ontario already sells beer, wine and spirits in grocery stores across the province in smaller communities through the LCBO’s agency store program and has successfully done so for many years,” continued Westcott.

The Association of Canadian Distillers also argues that according to the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, beer and wine are not safer than spirits, as all typical serves contain about the same level of alcohol.

“Beer and wine in grocery stores may sound like a good thing, but hurting Ontario distillers to advantage foreign beer companies is a bad idea,” Westcott concluded.