BC’s liquor industry is raising a glass after receiving some good news from the federal government.
Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced the national beer tax that was set to rise next month (April 1st) will remain capped at 2% for the next two years.
Jeff Guignard, the Executive Director at the Alliance of Beverage Licensees told Vista Radio the decision by Ottawa gives the industry some time, but is still navigating through some pretty muddy waters.
“The real problem is we don’t know where we are going to be in two years. We did not know two years ago that we would still be grappling with the financial impacts of the pandemic. As of today, about two-thirds of the hospitality industry like pubs, bars, restaurants and cocktail lounges are still not profitable.”
“At a time when small businesses are suffering and consumers are suffering it just makes no sense to increase government taxes at this time.”
Guignard believes the continued easing of the alcohol excise tax, will mean good news for the industry in the long run.
“The federal government can now say give us a couple years and we are tying this to inflation but it’s no more than 2% a year. We can manage that and then we are going to take some time in the next couple years to see where we are at and if we can come up with a better long-term solution instead of a tax that keeps going up.”
The tax was projected to jump 4.7% on April 1st.
-files by Brendan Pawliw-MyPGNow
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