Atlantic Xpat

People of Ford-tario. Is buck a beer a thing outside of Mr Ford's fevered mind? How much is a beer anyway? In Canada's most expensive (feels like) province to buy booze, a buck a beer, even for domestic swill, seems like an impossibility. How will a buck a beer change your lives? Should I consider relocating?

Hurlabrick

No, he is dreaming!

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Originally Posted by Atlantic Xpat

How much is a beer anyway?

Even 'value' p*ss-water like Lakeport Pilsener is still $80 (pre-tax) for 48 small cans

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Originally Posted by Atlantic Xpat

How will a buck a beer change your lives?

Lead to considerable cost savings during hockey season!!!

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Originally Posted by Atlantic Xpat

Should I consider relocating?

Nah - yer good on 'the rock'!

magnumpi

Siouxie

O'Doul's is $15 for a 12 pack (plus taxes) .. so not even 0.04% alcohol beer is that cheap.. but apparently will be!

But wait, there's more!

The Ontario government says it will offer “non-financial incentives” to brewers who sell their beer for $1 once the province’s buck-a-beer plan is in place later this month.

The Progressive Conservative plan will lower the minimum price of a bottle or can of beer with an alcohol volume below 5.6 per cent to $1 from $1.25 starting Aug. 27 – a few days before the Labour Day weekend.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4373758/ontario-buck-a-beer/


Oh joy - so what's the betting the Police will have a Ride program for that weekend now, lol (the Govt have got to make up the deficit somehow, so fines would work).

dbd33

It would seem that I've turned in George Bush or BoJo or Betsy DeVos. I have no idea of the price of beer despite buying it every week. To me it's like petrol, it doesn't matter what it costs because I'm going to buy it anyway. Oh, and it's like petrol in that Doug Ford says he's making it cheap but he isn't.

Souvy

$1.25 is what you pay in a supermarket here. I believe that's the lowest price allowed in QC. That is probably why Walmart doesn't sell beer. It can't undercut the competition.

Oakvillian

I gather there are no breweries currently supplying beer for sale at the existing floor price of $1.25. By the time the Beer Store, supermarket and/or LCBO have taken their cut, there's not enough margin. According to a brewer I heard on the radio yesterday, the only way beer could be brewed down to that price and still make money is by brewing at around 8% abv and then diluting it for sale. That leads to even more gnat's piss flavour than the bottom-of-the-market swill currently enjoys. Drinkable beer will not be available anywhere near the floor price.

It appears the "non-financial incentives" will include things like premium placement in LCBO stores, inclusion in prominent position in flyers and in-store signage. All of those things have significant monetary value, so it's hard to see how they count as "non-financial incentives." Still, it lets Ford and his supporters think they're winning, so it's gotta be a good thing, right?

AX, if I were you I'd stay on the Rock. There's too much winning going on in Ontario, what with throwing the health and physical education curriculum into disarray, this buck-a-beer boondoggle, the cancellation of renewable energy projects, and so much more. Oh, but gas prices went down by a couple of pennies for ten days or so until the gas companies put them all back up again, so that's all OK.

neilcumming

If beer prices are lowered wouldnt that mean people drinking more therefore more drunk people and all the problems that come with that? We seem to be living in an age where politicians are elected with the lowest amount of brain cells.If buck a beer happened in Alberta it wouldnt affect myself as I only buy craft beer and dont mind paying a few dollars extra for better quality,cant drink cheap swill ,tastes disgusting.I used like Goose Island but when Trump started playing silly bugger with tariffs on Canadian exports I stopped buying it.

Cyan

Ford is appealing to his base. Just like his Orc counterpart role model south of the border, his manifesto is comprised of bumper sticker slogans which resonate with the inner neanderthal that exists in us all.

Oakvillian

I see some sort of legal challenge in the offing. The so-called "non-financial incentives" offered to brewers who take up this nonsense amount to government-funded promotional considerations in LCBO stores (owned by the government) worth upwards of $500 per month per store (so for all 650 stores x $500 per month = $325,000 per month per buck-a-beer brewer) . With that kind of "free" promotion given away only to those multinational swill producers who can swallow the losses, and at the expense of local Ontario brewers who will be missing out on the opportunity to participate in the promotion even by paying for it - as all the available promotion space will most likely be given over to AB/InBev/SAB Miller and Molson-Coors - there is a rather obvious tilt to the playing field. Craft Beer Ontario, to which many local breweries belong, is apparently examining their options for a court challenge - not about the floor price, as they'd never go there anyway, but about the incentive program offered to participants.

Almost Canadian

Would it not be easier for him to open up the liquor store market to private operators? Would anyone other than those employed by LCBO object to that?

Oakvillian

For everyone except the multinational brewers who operate an effective monopoly in the beer distribution marketplace (the Beer Store, which runs retail outlets and has a stranglehold on supplies of both draft and bottled beer to bars and restaurants, is owned jointly AB-InBev and Molson-Coors), that would be by far and away the most sensible and successful policy. The previous government took some steps towards liberalizing the beer and wine retail environment when they allowed supermarkets to sell alcohol, but there are still a number of restrictions on what can be sold and how it can be packaged (and I believe beer sold through supermarkets is still distributed by the Beer Store). So the big brewers are even more vociferously opposed to any further deregulation than the LCBO is.

Although one of the loudest voices in opposition is the public service union that represents LCBO workers, so perhaps Ford's mind is torn between supporting his donors/cronies in the big breweries on one hand, and his natural antipathy towards trade unions on the other...

Oink

Personally think that even that's too expensive. It should around 50 cents a can, maybe up to 75 cents a glass in posh places.

TonyWFC

A pint of craft beer for a $1 would be lovely but alas we know that's not going to happen!

BristolUK

It did strike me as being a bit odd given the current laws regarding alcohol are quite restrictive - in terms of convenience, age and public drinking. It all seems a bit contrary.

And then there's the UK always talking about a high minimum price