Raise a glass to Manitoba - Rick Perkins is an idoit

[mr x]

Could somebody staple this to Rick Perkin's head:

It won't happen quickly enough to aid Jets fans celebrate any return of NHL hockey to their city, but Manitoba's expansion of beer and wine retailing is a lesson to provinces across Canada.

The reforms are modest: Just five grocery stores – places where alcohol cannot be sold today – will get beer and wine, and it will be sold under the aegis of the province's liquor commission. But Manitoba is sending other welcome signals that it is open to the devil's brew. The province is going to introduce a “Bring Your Own Wine” program for restaurants. It's going to make it easier to open a brew pub. Other innovations, like online permit applications and multi-year liquor licensing, bring the government into the modern era.

Canada's liquor laws have lagged changes in public morality. It was only 14 years ago that Ontario lifted the ban on Sunday liquor sales. Canadians should not face unreasonable bars on access to a product that, when consumed in moderation with sensible controls, does not jeopardize public health.

And there's little evidence that expanded access is a danger. A 2005 review panel for the province of Ontario found that “a variety of regulatory strategies can ensure social responsibility in the sale of beverage alcohol.” Quebec, the province with the most freely available alcohol (beer and wine can be sold in any convenience store), has more light drinkers, but fewer heavy drinkers, than any other province in Canada, according to a 2009 Health Canada study. Manitoba's reforms, which include the registration of beer kegs and a crackdown on false IDs, have won support from brewers, and from MADD Canada.

Not every province will want to liberalize as fully as Quebec. But they should watch and then follow Manitoba's example. And all provinces can go further still, by taking another pro-consumer move, following Alberta's lead and privatizing liquor sales. Here's to beer and wine on more store shelves.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opi ... le2030430/

[derek]

I don't get it. What's so special about five "grocery stores [selling] beer and wine... under the aegis of the province's liquor commission." and introducing 'a “Bring Your Own Wine” program for restaurants'? Even Nova Scotia has that (OK, the grocery store wine is physically separate, but we have more than 5 stores with attached NSLCs).

[mr x]

There`s more stuff in there.

It's going to make it easier to open a brew pub. Other innovations, like online permit applications and multi-year liquor licensing, bring the government into the modern era.

Plus the alcohol in the stores is a major deviation in theology.

[derek]

It is a major change to put alcohol in stores - if nothing else, it usually means longer hours of availability (though I've been in places where alcohol in the grocery store is locked up outside certain hours, or - in Atlanta - I got a shocked look when I tried to put a six pack on the checkout counter on a Sunday). But the fact that it's only going to be allowed in 5 stores says to me that they're no more serious than NS.

However, I'm not at all sure that's what they're offering: see "Decter Hirst said she's also encouraged that Brandon will be in the running for one of the five urban locations where the province is proposing to pilot limited-selection MLCC Liquor Mart boutiques, with a focus on Manitoban and Canadian products."

It sounds like exactly what we have here.

As for the brew-pubs and licensing, there's nothing to suggest that those changes are going to make it any better than NS.

[Araxi]

From a Manitoban that has traveled all across Canada. Manitoba is a wasteland of archaic liquor laws. I spoke with the owner of the ONLY Manitoba craft brewer and he told me that opening the brewery was the hardest thing he had ever done due to all the red tape and bureaucracy involved. I traveled through Regina last spring on the way to Banff and even Regina has 8 brew pubs. Sadly Manitoba lags far behind the rest of the country for us lovers of craft beer. That being said I leave for my new home in Moncton on the 26th...wife and I can't wait to make our new home on the east coast and to enjoy some fine east coast brews.

[derek]

From a Manitoban that has traveled all across Canada. Manitoba is a wasteland of archaic liquor laws.

I'm sure you're right, and I'm sure these changes to the laws in Manitoba are a huge improvement. The point I was trying to make is that all they seem to be doing is bringing Manitoba up to Nova Scotia's standards - and that's nothing to be proud of!

[BobbyOK]

While Manitoba's move isn't groundbreaking, that quote about the Health Canada study is. If Quebec's impaired driving rates are also lower, that would kill the social responsibility argument of the Liquor boards entirely.

[derek]

Ain't that the truth. Unfortunately there are too many vested interests funding these studies. One was released a few weeks back showing that kids whose parents allow "supervised drinking" grow up to have more problems with alcohol than kids who aren't allowed to drink at all. Something tells me this study wasn't talking about European families whose kids drink wine with dinner every night...

[mr x]

I'm not aware of that study by Health Canada being funded by any vested interests. An item that gets lost in that package is multi year licensing. For small nano operators, such as Rusty Anchor, that can be a significant bonus, an incentive. Nova Scotia has become stagnant, hostage to social responsibility and short-sighted greed by the government and bogey-man campaigns by NSLC employees.

[BobbyOK]

Ain't that the truth. Unfortunately there are too many vested interests funding these studies. One was released a few weeks back showing that kids whose parents allow "supervised drinking" grow up to have more problems with alcohol than kids who aren't allowed to drink at all. Something tells me this study wasn't talking about European families whose kids drink wine with dinner every night...

Which is why the fact that it's a Health Canada study is important - this is the government saying that primarily government-run systems don't do as well as a more-private involved system. Hard to argue that Health Canada would be biased against the Liquor Boards.

[benwedge]

They'll come back and cite a study showing that lower prices = higher consumption. Those studies are plentiful, because they are correct. What they fail to distinguish, though Health Canada did point it out, is that binge drinking is less common. Lower prices means more people can have a (very good for your heart) glass of wine with their meals. Higher prices mean you scrape your pennies together and down a few bottles one night in celebration.

Scrapping the NSLC means higher employment too (Alberta being the example). Since we don't pay out EI and welfare benefits to people with jobs, I fail to see how privatizing and liberalizing liquor sales hurt the government's bottom line.