Alberta Premier Rachel Notley

Wow! People are really worked up about Alberta’s policy changes and the war of words between Premiers Notley and Wall. The coverage and debate just keeps going on and on. I have had (likely more) than my share of media requests. Maybe it is good that people are that passionate about beer, but I have a sneaking suspicion most of the heat has little to do about beer and is more about ideology and political positioning. For those of you who haven’t kept up, you can read the story till now here, here, here and here.

The timing of this incredible interest in beer policy (which has been my quiet corner of the interweb for many years… ask Owen) is actually bad for me, as I am about to unplug for a week and go on a vacation in the mountains with no electronics. Meaning I will likely miss any big announcements this week. However, I will promise you this – what I miss in timeliness I will make up next week with insight. Deal? Promise to stick with me?

As I go, allow me to offer a few final thoughts about where we stand at this point. In no particular order:

• The Edmonton Journal ran an op-ed piece from me on Saturday (read it here) offering up my main gripe in this debate – the lack of overall context. Looking only at Alberta’s tax policy obfuscates the generalized problem in Canada’s beer system. In short: nobody’s hands are clean on this one. The easy swipe is at the Notley government for trying to do something, anything, to support a local beer industry, when for decades every province has had its own particular form of protectionism. We need to get past this polarization.

• I was bemused to read (here) on Friday that B.C., Ontario and Quebec agreed to a kind-of agreement to sort-of allow consumers to, in a way, buy wine, online, from the other provinces. It isn’t much, but it is a recognition that the status quo makes no sense. Why can’t we get this on beer?

• The announced inter-provincial trade deal (story here) notably excludes alcohol and instead sets up a “working group” to discuss reducing barriers. I am not sure how to take this. The optimist in me hopes that this is a mechanism to finding that rational solution I and others are talking about. Yet, somehow, I remain unconvinced that the big brewing provinces of B.C., Ontario and Quebec are prepared to give up their advantages to allow Alberta, Nova Scotia or Manitoba (just as examples) beer to fully compete in their markets.

• Also on Friday, (as it works out as I was driving to do my column profiling Bent Stick Brewing) I heard a debate between Ken Beattie, Executive Director of the B.C. Craft Brewers Guild, Paddock Wood owner Steven Cavan, and new Alberta Small Brewers Association Executive Director Terry Rock. (Sorry I haven’t found an online audio file of this.) It was an interesting debate. One thing I noted was Beattie’s efforts to argue B.C. has an open system. He claimed “if an application is approved, a brewery gets full access” to the range of B.C. liquor stores. He also indicated only 1 Alberta brewery had applied in the last 2 years. Okay, fair enough. Except for this. First, did that brewery get accepted (the host didn’t ask)? Even if the answer is yes, the fact I have to ask the question demonstrates that B.C. doesn’t have an open market, as a civil servant gets to decide whether they get in or not – and as implied by Beattie’s use of the word “if”. Plus it may be that Alberta breweries haven’t applied because they doubt they will get accepted – why spend the energy?

• This issue of private liquor stores in B.C. and Saskatchewan have come up a few times in the debate. It is true these stores have the right to order any beer they wish and thus bypass the approval process (the liquor agency remains the official “buyer” of the product), and so offer some degree of open market access. However, they are relatively small players in their respective markets and can work well for one-offs and introductions to a brand. They are not well suited for allowing the kind of volume that would make all the effort worthwhile for a brewery wanting to take a serious crack at the market. It is a bit of a case of apples and oranges, since Alberta is wide-open.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall

I have been noticing a shift in the tone of the debate in the last few days, which leaves me somewhat encouraged. The spotlight put on the myriad of barriers to inter-provincial sale of beer in every province does have some people in the craft beer industry talking about finding a way to support small, independent breweries to thrive in their home market AND share their beer with other Canadians. The unifying sentiment is to not allow the corporate brewers to benefit from division among craft brewers.

However, I believe that for such talk to move beyond rhetoric, breweries in the protected markets need to start advocating for changes in their system to allow greater access to other breweries. Further, they need to refrain from flooding the Alberta market – and thus undermining their Alberta brethern – just because it works for them. I appreciate the latter point is rather unfair of me, as all businesses need to act in their self-interest, and capturing market share in the wake of last fall’s changes makes sense, business-wise, for B.C. breweries (read here for a summary). However, it does undermine trust. Why should Alberta breweries take the complaints of B.C. breweries seriously when they are actively attempting to undermine the market position of Alberta breweries? And what are they doing to help Alberta breweries break into their province?

There are clearly a lot more questions than answers right now. Here is hoping some key people start sitting down over a beer and start working things out.