The facts are few but the opinions are fanciful as we read reaction to the Ford government’s alcohol policies. What is particularly amusing is that we are told neither the premier nor his finance minister drink alcohol. And yet they are telling old, staid and dull Ontario to loosen up and have another drink.
They have obviously found out how many billions in taxes the distribution of booze brings the province each year. Regretfully, the doubling of availability will be unlikely to double that revenue.
But it still frightens the ‘blue-stockings’ among us. I always thought that ‘Repression Works’ was the motto of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
The new and plentiful hours of booze service would frighten Carrie Nation. Drinking in parks and parking lots is also new. Deals for ‘happy hour’ sound exciting and free drinks while gambling does not. (Any smart gambler will settle for the free coffee while gambling.)
Rob Simpson of Sagewood Resources writes in the Toronto Star that government costs of alcohol addiction in Ontario exceed revenues by $465.4 millions. That is a very precise estimate, when he does not seem to know the extent of the revenues.
It is not that I would argue with the suggestion he makes that the price of alcohol is the number one contributor to increased consumption. Judging by Dougie’s experience with his ‘buck-a-beer,’ pledge, there is little chance of lowered prices of booze in the province.
Simpson also states that the Wynne government had already made “massive” increases to the availability of alcohol with its water torture adding of a few grocery stores to selling beer and wine. He seriously says that the fact that each of the (eventually) 450 stores planned, which were each capped at $1 million in sales(?) would add a total $450 million to Ontario booze revenues.
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Copyright 2019 © Peter Lowry
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