Independent study calls on Ontario to privatize alcohol

Another independent study has called upon the provincial government to put beer and wine sales in private hands.

The report from the C.D Howe Institute says the cash-strapped province could rake in an additional half-a-billion dollars in new revenue by expanding retail opportunities.

Paul Masson, the author of the study says there is one obvious problem with Ontario’s current retail alcohol system.

“The general public pays higher price than they have to, and in some cases has less choice.”

The study focused on wine and beer and called for three major changes to the current system.

To allow sales of wine and beer in grocery and convenience stores, to licence new retail outlets for beer and to grant licences for off-winery stores and new wine retailers.

Allan Schmidt from the Ontario Wine Council says they favour keeping the LCBO but want to see the addition of  private boutique wine stores.

“And if Ontario consumers had 700 stores like in B.C they would have greater selection and different hours and everybody wins.”

Both the Wine Council, and the C.D Howe report think the government is leaving precious revenue dollars on the table. Opening doors would also spur growth in wine and craft brewing industries and that means job creation.

Masson says he’s not betting on it.

“There are enough big players that benefit from the current system, that it’s awfully hard to change the status-quo.”

There are already some wine outlets in Ontario grocery stores but all 300 hundred of them are owned by a group of six large wine producers.

Two of those producers own 90 percent of the stores.

It remains to be seen if the lure of new money for a cash-hungry government may prove too powerful for the “big interests” that Masson refers to and could finally convince the province to open up alcohol retailing to private interests.