E-Malt.com News article: Canada, ON: Ontario changes legislation to allow beer sales in supermarkets

Premier Kathleen Wynne has announced the most sweeping reforms of beer sales in the Ontario’s history, OurWindsor.ca reported on April 17th.

Beer will soon be sold in up to 450 supermarkets with Ontario drinkers guaranteed the lowest prices in Canada, says Premier Kathleen Wynne.

In the most sweeping reforms of beer sales in the province’s history, the privately owned Beer Store monopoly will also be revamped to increase access to consumers for Ontario’s burgeoning craft brewing industry and bring in an additional C$100 million annually to the treasury.

The radical change to beer sales comes after an ongoing investigation by the Star.

Last December, the Star exposed a deal between the Beer Store and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, lobbying and political donations by the big foreign-owned brewers that control the 448-outlet chain, among other revelations.

Under the new measures, beer prices will be set so they are the same at supermarkets, the 651-outlet LCBO, and the Beer Store.

“Ontario consumers will continue to pay prices for their beer that are at or below the lowest prices in Canada,” the government emphasized in a statement.

However, a new levy will eventually add C$1 to the cost of a 24-pack that currently retails for about C$34 in Ontario (compared to C$40 for the same beer in Alberta and British Columbia.)

Supermarkets should begin selling beer by this Christmas with suds available in as many as 150 large grocery stores by May 1, 2017.

Clark, who will continue to work to eventually bring wine sales to grocery stores, also recommended changes to the LCBO.

Online sales through a new LCBO e-commerce retail site will allow for home delivery or pickup at stores.

There will be new publicly owned boutiques for niche products, such as craft beers, and specialty spirits like single malt Scotch.

Sale of 12- and 24-packs of beer — currently restricted by law to the Beer Store, which the Star’s Martin Regg Cohn revealed in December — will be phased in initially to 10 LCBO outlets.

If that works out, there could eventually be 220 LCBO store allowed to sell the bigger packages.

Supermarkets will be limited to selling six-packs or smaller formats.

The hours of sale will be restricted and grocers will have to train staff to ensure underage consumers are prohibited from buying beer.

Supermarkets will buy their beer from the LCBO’s existing distribution network.

While he noted the “most newsworthy change” is the expanded sale of beer, he stressed that 9,000 small licensees across the province will soon be allowed to buy beer at lower prices for their bars and restaurants.

That change is a huge break for half of Ontario’s licensed establishments, designed to help small businesses.

The government expects the beer rethink to be a boost for the province’s 150 independent brewers, who currently employ 1,000 people, compared to 2,600 workers for Labatt, Molson, and Sleeman, the giants that own the Beer Store.

“This is a game changer,” said Cam Heaps, co-founder of Toronto’s Steam Whistle Brewing and chair of Ontario Craft Brewers.

“We expect today’s announcement will mean a doubling craft market share and the addition of 1,000 to 2,000 new brewery jobs in communities of all sizes and from all parts of the province,” said Heaps.


17 April, 2015