28 / 44
Winter
2017
Grains
West
28
“We can’t build a brewing industry in
Alberta if that’s the kind of competitive
landscape we face.”
Alone, this might not have been
enough to convince the government that
the system was unsustainable. However,
a legal challenge from Toronto’s Steam
Whistle Brewing, which argued that
restricting the reduced markups to the
NewWest Partnership was a barrier to
interprovincial trade, eventually forced
its hand. While many Alberta brewers
would have liked to see the graduated
markups maintained, with eligibility
further restricted to only breweries
based in the province, the SteamWhistle
challenge revealed that such a scheme
might not pass legal muster when
combined with the existing privatized
liquor retail system.
Within the framework of the new
markups and grant program, Alberta’s
craft brewing industry seems to finally
be on the cusp of a major expansion that
could bring it up to the same level as the
robust brewing industries that already
exist in Ontario and B.C. This is great news
for Alberta brewers and Albertans who
want to drink local craft beer, but others
are less than impressed by the changes.
bitter neighbours
Unsurprisingly, brewers in Saskatchewan
and B.C., as well as some specialty beer
importers in Alberta, have spoken out
against the markup changes. Breweries
like Surrey’s Central City Brewing and
Saskatoon’s Great Western Brewing
that do a large portion of their business
in Alberta have been hit especially
hard. The markup change created a
78-cent-per-litre price increase for Great
Western products sold here, which
amounts to a price hike of more than six
dollars on a 24-pack of cans. In October,
Great Western filed a lawsuit against
the Alberta government in an attempt
to have the markup increase declared
unconstitutional. In November, Great
Western was granted an injunction by an
Alberta court that will allow it to operate
with the old markup until its larger
constitutional case is settled in May.
Alberta brewers like Berard have
little sympathy for Central City or Great
Western. While these out-of-province
breweries see the new markups as unfair
treatment, the local industry views the tax
hike as more of an equalizer.
“Other provinces are ticked off that
now they just don’t have free reign in
Alberta like they did before,” Berard said.
On the other hand, Alberta breweries
have never had much access, let alone
“free reign,” in the B.C. or Saskatchewan
markets. While Alberta has a privatized
retail system and open borders, making
it one of the easiest markets to get
into for out-of-province breweries, its
neighbours to the east and west both
have primarily government-controlled
systems. This means breweries that want
to export beer to these provinces have to
apply through the destination provinces’
respective regulatory bodies—the B.C.
POURING PRAIRIE PRIDE:
Troubled Monk Brewery’s Charlie Bredo pours beer samples for Alberta’s Minister of Finance and president of the
Treasury Board Joe Ceci and Red Deer MLA Kim Schreiner at the brewery’s Red Deer taproom.