Ontario is simply getting in step with the rest of the world. Countries from the United Kingdom to the United States, from France to Poland, from South Korea to Japan, have booze for sale in small stores.Galit Rodan/The Globe and Mail
This week Ontarians started enjoying a small convenience that people in most advanced countries take for granted: buying booze at the corner store. Thanks to this long-delayed leap out of the prohibition era and into the modern world, they can buy beer, wine and ready-made cocktails in thousands of newly licensed outlets around the province.
It’s a boon for consumers, who will be able to grab a six-pack or a bottle of pinot when they walk up to the corner or stop in for some necessities on the drive home from work. It’s a boon for struggling convenience-store owners, who will get a whole new product line to bring customers through their doors. And it’s a boon for craft brewers, cider makers and other small producers. The new rules require licensed stores to carry some of their offerings, which will get welcome new exposure.
Yet critics of the new regime insist it’s a disaster in the making. Some say that alcohol abuse is bound to soar, others that underage drinking will take off. Opposition parties say the money the government is paying out to smooth the transition is a colossal waste of money. The liquor-store union even went on strike to try to block the change.
It’s all a bit much. Ontario is simply getting in step with the rest of the world. Countries from the United Kingdom to the United States, from France to Poland, from South Korea to Japan, have booze for sale in small stores. Quebec’s famous depanneurs have sold beer and plonk for years. Civilization as we know hasn’t ended yet.
Even in Ontario, the province that fun forgot, you can already get low-alcohol booze in all sorts of places, from the liquor store to the beer store to many supermarkets. There is nothing to suggest that making these legal beverages slightly easier to purchase will unleash anarchy on the streets.
Corner stores are being allowed to sell the stuff only from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Storekeepers must demand proof of age from customers, as they already do for cigarettes and lottery tickets.
It’s true that the government of Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford is paying a big premium to get out of a 10-year contract with the Beer Store, the privately owned retail chain that sells only (you guessed it) beer. His motives may be less than noble. There’s talk of an early election next year and he could boast of opening up booze sales.
But his impatience is understandable. It has been close to 40 years since another premier, David Peterson, promised to get beer and wine into corner stores. It’s been six years since Mr. Ford came to office making the same vow.
The penalty of up to $225-million that his government is paying for breaking the Beer Store contract is the fault of the previous government, led by Liberal Kathleen Wynne. Desperate to raise money for public transit and other needs, it allowed supermarkets (but not corner stores) to sell beer if they paid a handsome fee. The contract was part of that half-hearted reform.
The endless hesitations and stutter steps on the way to updating Ontario’s antique liquor rules are proof yet again of the abiding power of the status quo in Canada. Peace, order and good government often translate as stagnation, torpor and big government. Faced with the power of the business, labour and entrenched bureaucracy, government after government has balked at liberalizing booze sales.
Even the Ford government is stopping short of taking the obvious next step: getting the government out of selling alcohol altogether and letting the market take care of things, as it does for cigarettes, eggs or milk. The unloved Liquor Control Board of Ontario will live on, with a virtual monopoly on the sale of spirits. So will that unique, ridiculous and wholly redundant entity, the Beer Store.
Blowing the whole thing up would be the best thing. In the meantime, beer and wine in the corner store will have to do. It’s a minor victory for convenience and consumer choice, not a calamity waiting to happen.