He spotted me wandering around a section of the store. He came over and I explained I had something in particular I wanted to buy. Before long, he’d led me to the right shelf, pointed out several brand options, their qualities, and the price range. I was a bit surprised by his knowledge and thanked him.
“Anytime,” he said. “Here to help.”
I’ve never considered myself an expert on wines or for that matter beer either. I enjoy both in moderation, but can’t claim expertise on any beverage’s origin, traditions, heritage or distribution in Canada. I just know the tastes I enjoy and that I like to learn about something that might be new and worth investigating.
But what I hadn’t really considered until last Friday, when more than 9,000 employees of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) went on strike, was the knowledge and experience of its staff. The same way you depend on other specialized retailers to inform you before you buy a book, a piece of furniture, a health product or a car, LCBO employees have to know a thing or two about wine, beer and spirits to help their customers.
Naturally, those same workers now on picket lines across Ontario have genuine worries that the Ford government’s decision to allow the sales of beer, wine, cider and ready-to-drink cocktails at convenience stores and all grocers by 2026, could jeopardize their jobs.
Indeed, J.P. Hornick, the president of Ontario Public Service Employees Union, told a press conference this week, “Ford’s plan to expand privatization of alcohol sales … reduces the meaningfulness of the work that we do. That puts Ontarians at risk,” Hornick said. And I think he’s got a point.
Quite apart from shifting the sale of alcohol away from the public sector toward privatization, and the potential loss of LCBO jobs, if convenience stores and grocers undercut prices at the crown corporation stores, I think Ontarians stand to lose something perhaps more valuable: funding for public services.
According to its most recent published financial report, the LCBO currently operates 680 stores, while also supplying 450 grocery stores. In 2022, the LCBO sold more than 1.1 billion litres of beverage alcohol products for total gross earnings of $7.34 billion. Of that $2.55 billion went into provincial coffers to fund healthcare, education and infrastructure.
Or, to put that into clearer perspective, the amount of money generated by Ontarians buying alcohol from LCBO outlets (if applied entirely to Peter Bethlanfalvy’s 2024 budget) would almost eliminate his deficit of $3 billion.
Put another way, the Ford government could nearly balance Ontario’s expenses via income raised by the provincially run LCBO.
That all goes down the drain, however, if the Conservatives’ privatization rollout continues. We’re still reeling from news, in May, when the Ford government announced it would pay the multinational owners of The Beer Store to allow “early implementation” of expanded alcohol sales.
That Ford deal would give private-sector retailers, such as grocery and convenience stores, a wholesale discount of 10 per cent off what the LCBO charges. The Ford arrangement also gives brewers a full rebate of “cost-of-service fees” on wholesale beer sales.
Bottom line? Ontario taxpayers face a net revenue loss of about $150-200 million per year fulfilling all the pay-out clauses of the privatization plan.
So much for Doug Ford’s buck-a-beer utopia in Ontario.
Not only does it appear that the Ford/Bethlanfalvy plan will move the sale of alcohol holus-bolus into the private sector, but it will almost certainly cause OPSEU workers to lose their jobs, AND convenient LCBO outlets to close, AND kill the golden egg of revenue generating for Ontario public programs.
Oh, and that’s not the end of the story. To hasten this rush to lots more confusion and lots more loss of provincial revenue, the very week that LCBO employees went on strike across the province, our own MPP Bethlanfalvy’s Ministry of Finance issued a press release, entitled “Where to buy alcoholic beverages.”
It offers a digital map for Ontarians to find locations that sell beer, wine, cider, spirits and ready-to-drink coolers and seltzers all over Ontario, “despite the ongoing LCBO labour disruption.”
“Enter a location name, address, city or town,” in the search box, the release says, and “you can find Ontario-made products to support local businesses and jobs.”
So, I guess the Ford government will also provide me with a handy search box to inform me about my beer and wine purchase the next time I visit a convenience store, since that knowledgeable staffer won’t be around to help me at the reliable LCBO outlet anymore.
