steamwhistlelogoYesterday at the Court of Queen’s Bench, Steam Whistle Brewing out of Toronto was granted a temporary injunction against the new Alberta mark-up policy established in the fall provincial budget (read about the policy here). Here is the Canadian Beer News post on the development (they link to a Calgary Herald Op-Ed that was just posted, but I won’t link to it here because it contains no useful facts for people wanting to actually know what is going on and is written by a right-wing lobbyist who uses the piece to simply grind their ongoing axes).

I had heard this was coming and am not surprised. The reaction from Ontario brewers and others has been quite vociferous since the announcement and there have been rumours for weeks that some kind of legal fight was about to be launched.

I have not yet examined the court documents (I have a day job, people!) and so will refrain for the moment to comment on the substance of the decision. Besides I suspect the decision was either oral or rather perfunctory, as interim injunctions usually are.

Two things are clear. First, for the moment, Steam Whistle is exempt from the higher mark-up applied to non-Alberta beer. Second, this is an interim injunction, meaning the judge has not rendered any formal decision regarding the legality of the policy. All they have indicated is that there is enough to merit further argument and consideration.

That said, it is a blow to the new government’s plans to promote local craft beer production. They may need to go back to the drawing board if this continues to play out poorly.

But opponents of the policy shouldn’t be popping the champagne just yet (wait, what do brewers pop when celebrating???). If the policy is struck down – and that is a mighty big if – there is nothing stopping the government from finding other ways to support local breweries. Maybe those ways will be more palatable to importers, maybe not.

Besides, opponents should be careful what they ask for. Alberta continues to have the most open borders and most accessible beer market in the country. If a differential tax is seen as a restraint on free trade, then tell me how greatly restricting or outright refusing to approve the listing of any products from other provinces (looking at you Ontario and Quebec) would be seen as legal? Breweries living in protectionist glass houses should think carefully before throwing free trade stones.

Stay tuned. This is about to get very interesting.