Beer is to Canada what wine is to France. The image of a plaid-shirted outdoorsman pounding back a Molson Canadian after a hard day out in the cold is essential to our Canadian identity. Drinking good old strong Canadian beer is just as important to us as our perceived politeness relative to our American neighbours, our ability to work long hours in our cold northern climate and the frequency of epic beards.
I grew up with four-time world champion curling great Glen Howard working at my local Beer Store. Every year he maxed out his holiday time attending competitions around Canada and the world. Surely if a world class curler was a Beer Store employee then that was the most patriotic of employers.
We may be Canadian (or honorary Canadians), but your local Ontario beer store isn’t. It may be a shock to some readers, but The Beer Store, unlike the LCBO, is not owned by our government. In a 2013 survey it was found that only 13% of Canadians knew that The Beer Store monopoly was not a government owned enterprise. The ability for The Beer Store to hold a monopoly on the Ontario beer market is not the only issue. The Beer Store operates much like Walmart, going for a ‘one size fits all’ approach, one which makes it nearly impossible for small craft brewers from Ontario to break into the Ontario market.
Just like Molson Canadian which merged with US company Coors in 2005, The Beer Store is mainly owned by non-Canadian entities. Shares for The Beer Store are owned by three companies; The Labatt arm of Anheuser-Busch InBev of Belgium and Molson Coors Brewing Company both own 49% of company shares while Sleeman Breweries, an arm of Sapporo of Japan owns the remaining 2%. Only Molson Coors Brewing Company has partial Canadian ownership.
A lot has changed since a consortium of Ontario brewers founded The Beer Store in 1927 under the trading name of “Brewers Retail”. At that time it was established by Ontario’s Liquor Control Act that the Beer Store, The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) and stores on the site of breweries would be allowed to sell alcoholic beverages for offsite consumption. The idea of tightly controlled alcohol retailers appealed to the temperance regime and 1927 marked a move forwards from the Prohibition which had been ongoing since 1916.
These days the attitude towards alcohol is not nearly so polarizing and many people are looking for novel flavours, preferably from somewhere near home. It has always been challenging for Ontario craft brewers to sell their products and this has really been stirring the pot in recent years. I am currently on co-op in Alberta where alcohol stores vary considerably in what they sell and what they call themselves. Although there is no alcohol in grocery stores like you would see in Quebec it is still a very open market where small craft brewers can choose to sell to as many or as few retailers as they want. In Ontario, small breweries and wineries are hindered by high volumes of product required to sell to The Beer Store and the LCBO, poor promotions for their products and high costs to get the right to sell through those institutions.
Even for consumers, the price of beer is steeper in Ontario. The Beer Store is supposed to operate as a not-for-profit entity. However, a 2013 study by Waterloo’s own Anindya Sen concluded that The Beer Store captures as much as $700 million in profits every year. He found that 24’s of the same beer type could often be found cheaper in Quebec grocery stores than in Ontario.
Next time you go to pick up some alcohol take a moment and give some thought to where the profits from your purchase are going. Does it matter that our beer, like so many other products, is sold by a mainly foreign owned company which takes the profits outside our border? It is a global marketplace after all. If you prefer the idea of an Ontario Owned and Operated organization maybe it’s time to check out the beer selection at your local LCBO.
Enjoy your beverages, but remember, drink responsibly, arrive alive eh?
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