Pubdate: Sun, 24 Apr 2016
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Page: 57
Copyright: 2016 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.ottawasun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.ottawasun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
Author: Andre Marin
Note: Marin is a part-time professor of law at the University of 
Ottawa. He was the ombudsman of Ontario from 2005 to 2015.

POT? WE CAN'T GET BOOZE RIGHT

Our Alcohol Distribution System Is Chaotic

As Ontario Ombudsman, Andre Marin was a frank, tough-talking watchdog,
keeping the provincial government in check and exposing problems in
the system. Now, he's bringing that same passion to the pages of the
Sun in a new column called The Ombudsman. Every Sunday, he'll weigh in
on issues that matter to you. If you have a hot topic you think he
should cast a critical eye on, let us know.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's promise of liberalizing pot use has
Premier Kathleen Wynne's Liberals high on selling marijuana at the
LCBOs.

But before we pop open the bubbly over pot sales, let's look at how
we're doing distributing a lesser evil, alcohol.

The sale of beer, wine and spirits has always been a strange brew in
Ontario. Part prohibition-era rules, part foreign ownership of
"Canadian" beer, and completely nanny state.

The selling of alcohol is to the province of Ontario what procurement
is for the military, an incredible and impossibly complicated ordeal
that just doesn't get the job done.

During a hot day last August, Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi was
grinning ear-to-ear as he showed up at an Ottawa LCBO announcing his
revolution in beer distribution. Not to be outdone, Wynne was calling
it the "biggest shakeup" to beer sales since 1927. What were Wynne and
Naqvi crowing about, proud as peacocks, as the "largest change since
prohibition"? What were these carefully crafted media lines referring
to? Wait for it: Allowing 12-packs of beer, up from six-packs, in 10
out of 863 LCBO stores and agency stores.

Anti-climatic to say the least.

Then came Yasir's admonition that, don't get too excited, this is
"only" a pilot project and that he would ensure to enforce a "high
degree of social responsibility." It's as if Naqvi expected riots to
break out in the sleepy suburb of Barrhaven, where he made the
announcement. If we prove to him that we can handle a 12-pack, what's
next? A 2-4? God forbid.

Wine has been promised in 70 new grocery stores for this summer, but
only after a competitive process where grocers have to prove they are
in conformity with a slew of rules and regulations.

Imagine you're a tourist arriving from overseas, or even the United
States, landing in Ontario. You want to sample Ontario wines but also
buy a French wine and spirits. Then you learn that you have to go to a
specially designated Metro for your beer, an Independent Grocer for
your Ontario wine and the state-run LCBO for your vodka. You give up
and end up ordering beer at a local pub to find out the server's 18
years old but you have to be over 19 to drink. Our alcohol
distribution is chaotic, without any rhyme or reason, and purporting
to save us from ourselves. It's an outdated, puritanical system.

Instead of looking at what other provinces or countries have done in
selling alcohol, why is the government setting the bar so low as to
improve the sale of booze since the end of prohibition in the 1927? Is
Ontario that backwards?

If the Ontario government wants to market itself to the feds as the
marijuana distributing arm of the province, it needs to get rid of the
red tape and the myriad of regulations that limit market forces. Keep
some ground rules, like the minimum age, but get rid of the majority
of them that are cumbersome and patronizing.

What's the logic behind requiring that grocery stores have food
products making up no less than 10,000 square feet of total retail
floor space in the store in order to sell beer, except to keep out
mom-and-pop convenience stores?

Let's really modernize the industry.

To borrow from Trudeau, this is 2016, after all, not
1927.

For example, at least open up beer and wine sales to every pharmacy,
corner or grocery store, as is done in most of the U.S. and Europe.
License, train and regulate the industry, but let them compete. And
keep reliable data on whether it leads to increased abuse or a rise in
crime. My guess is that it won't.

If the provincial Liberals appear in disarray on booze, don't look to
the Progressive Conservatives or the NDP. Both opposition parties
merrily follow the Liberals and have shown no creative vision to move
past 1927.

So this is the booze distribution system Wynne is pushing the feds to
sell marijuana to us. Unless we really shake things up, count on all
of us going to pot if Wynne ever gets her hands on the stuff. 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D