E-Malt.com News article: Canada, AB: Craft brewers hope Alberta provincial government will update taxes and regulations for the brewing industry

Alberta’s craft beer makers are hoping the NDP government is planning changes to the way the province taxes and regulates the industry, Calgary Herald reported on June 9.

With the new government taking over just as the Alberta Liquor and Gaming Commission gets set to continue a review of the province’s regulatory regime started by the previous PC administration, industry representatives see an opportunity to address some long-standing issues surrounding taxation and red tape.

“We have a new government - hopefully they’ll have a new perspective,” said Greg Zeschuk, executive director of the Alberta Small Brewers Association.

The ASBA is made up of nearly 20 breweries across the province, including Village, Wild Rose and Big Rock in Calgary. To belong, a brewer must be independently owned and headquartered in Alberta, brew at least 90 per cent of its beer here and have an annual output of less than 70 million litres.

At the end of 2013, the AGLC removed minimum production quotas that barred small breweries from starting up in Alberta, which spurred a few new breweries to open their doors.

But Zeschuk said Alberta hasn’t created an environment for a vibrant industry to take root like it has in Ontario or neighbouring B.C., where there are now close to 100 craft breweries.

“It’s really sad, because there’s no advantage to brewing in Alberta,” said Zeschuk.

Despite a relative lack of Alberta-based breweries, the province is a highly competitive battleground for local brewers because they fight for shelf space and market share with hundreds of brands from across Canada and around the world.

The mark-up regime has long been an irritant for Alberta brewers, which face protectionist rules when they try to get products listed with government-owned liquor boards in neighbouring provinces.

“The thing we’re dissatisfied with is the lack of fairness across provincial boundaries,” Zeschuk said.

“Meanwhile in Alberta, we’re saying, ‘Everyone’s welcome.'”

AGLC spokeswoman Megan Thorburn said the regulator is set to embark on the next stage of a review of Alberta’s laws and will announce the beginning of consultations with the public and industry stakeholders this week.

Thorburn added the government is still weighing changes to mark-ups on beer, but hasn’t made any decisions.

The mark-ups will be at the top of the agenda when the ASBA holds its annual general meeting in Edmonton in two weeks. While it will be up to members to decide the organization’s position, Zeschuk said his personal preference is to push for rules that will encourage the establishment of more local breweries, as opposed to protectionist measures that would keep others out of the Alberta marketplace.

In 2013, the ASBA estimated the local beer industry employed 1,185 people and contributed C$45 million to the province’s economy. A more recent study by the Conference Board of Canada in 2014 estimated the country’s “beer economy,” which includes breweries, the industries that supply them and the businesses that sell beer, supports 163,200 jobs nationwide.

Incentives such as tax credits for local breweries would have a broad benefit, Zeschuk argued.


10 June, 2015