E-Malt.com News article: Canada, BC: Craft brewing industry calling on government for urgent reforms

Owning a brewery in British Columbia is becoming more expensive every year. As a result, over 20 local breweries in the province have had to shut their doors in the last year. Production costs have increased by 30 per cent since 2020, according to the B.C. Craft Brewers Guild, BCIT News reported on September 18.

“For over a year, B.C.’s craft brewing industry has been calling on government for urgent reforms to a tax structure that unfairly benefits foreign-owned mega brewers while leaving local craft brewers behind,” said B.C. Craft Brewers Guild Executive Director, Ken Beattie in a news release.

Later this month, the guild has a meeting with B.C.’s Minister of Agriculture and Food, Lana Popham to discuss change. It hopes to affect change for all 219 of its members.

According to the Guild, foreign-owned breweries get more than C$9 million in tax rebates every year while locally owned businesses see escalating tax rates the more they grow.

“Before we even sell things, we have to pay a tax to the government,” said Peter Adams, co-owner of White Rock Beach Beer Company.

The Guild says locally owned breweries are currently taxed on how much they produce while foreign owned establishments pay a flat fee once they surpass a certain threshold.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also had an impact on businesses. Adams said people have kept their habits of quarantine with home delivery and doing events in their backyard.

“It’s still been slower now than it was even just before Covid. In our experience, people got used to doing other things rather than going out to a brewery. They changed their lifestyle.”

Adams says young adults are now turning towards mixed drinks rather than beer. “The beer drinking crowd is shrinking. Younger kids are looking for RTD’s (ready to drink), a lot of specialty cocktail kind of things that we don’t offer here.”

It is not only beer sales that are down, but also alcohol in general in B.C. in recent years. According to the UVic Research Centre, alcohol sales between 2020-2023 decreased by just over 7 per cent.


19 September, 2025