Calgary craft brewer bracing for increased beer tax
For one Calgary craft brewer, a proposed 4.7 per cent increase in the federal government’s alcohol excise tax on beer is like being kicked when you are down.
“Things are more expensive and we have a little less money to spend on things,” Erin McQuitty, co-owner of Born Brewing, said. “When I think about the price of beer, there is only so much someone is willing to pay for a four pack of beer. And it is a luxury. The beer we are producing is more expensive than other choices that are out there.”
McQuitty said it could be the difference that keeps the doors open for some beer producers.
“What we are hoping for is to see a bit of a reduction in our excise tax and we would see a little bit of an increases in our margin… that helps us with expanding, hiring more staff, you name it,” she said. “Any extra pennies we can keep in the bank helps.”
The new excise taxes coming into effect on April 1 are scaled by the amount of beer a domestic company produces per year and the per cent of alcohol by volume of the product. Producers that make less than 7.5 million litres of beer will be taxed at progressively lower rates.
The Canadian Craft Brewers Association urged Ottawa to increase the amount a brewer can make to 50 million litres before facing stiffer tax rates.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation said the government will make about $100 million with the increase, but said it’s the wrong time to be collecting more.
“You have so many businesses that are struggling, whether it is restaurants or breweries or other industries in the hospitality industry,” CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano said. “They can’t afford the tax hike and neither can consumers.
“Already, Canadians are struggling with a higher cost of living and the federal government should not be making that worse with another tax hike.”
According to CJ Hélie, president of Beer Canada, the increase could make beer up to 20 cents more expensive for a case of 24.
Terrazzano said the government should be cutting, not increasing, its excise tax.
“Whenever you go to bar, the liquor store to pick up a case of beer, a bottle of wine, a mickey of rum, you are already paying more than half of that price in tax,” Terrazzano said.
McQuitty said small Alberta beer producers have it better than most.
“In provinces like Ontario and British Columbia, we are seeing a lot of closures of craft breweries. This can be directly attributed to the taxation in those provinces,” she said.
“We are quite fortunate here in Alberta our tax rates are a little bit lower than those other provinces, so we are a little bit sheltered. But as we see inflation continue to rise and we see excise (tax) go up every year, that margin is shrinking for us and we will be at some point in the same position as those other breweries in other provinces.”
–with files from Eric Stober, Global News
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