TORONTO -- There will be a soft cap on the amount of beer that can be sold in Ontario grocery stores, but the government will not impose "stringent restrictions," Finance Minister Charles Sousa said Friday.
The Liberal government wants to allow sales of six-packs of beer in up to 450 grocery stores across Ontario by 2018, which would effectively double availability with the 447 retail outlets operated by the foreign-owned Beer Store. It's part of the biggest changes to beer sales in Ontario since prohibition was repealed.
"We're dealing with a system that's been in place for 90 years, trying to navigate this thing so we can provide greater access and availability," said Sousa.
The premier's advisory panel on government assets recommended licences restrict beer sales at each grocery store to $1 million a year, but chains would be able to average the volume sold across all its licensed outlets.
"We want to be certain we're providing licences to a number of grocers within a limited amount of distribution and production of product," Sousa said. "We're not going to restrict them in terms of specific store locations."
However, there would be geographic limitations on the licences, so one designated for northern Ontario could not be assigned to another region of the province. The government wants to ensure beer is available in some grocery stores in all regions.
It'll be up to grocers who win the licences to decide where to retail the beer, and grocery stores won't run out of suds to sell once they hit a quota, added Sousa.
"There won't be stringent restrictions that's going to prevent those respective licensees from having the amounts that are required," he said. "They'll be okay."
The Progressive Conservatives said the Liberals aren't doing nearly enough to help Ontario craft brewers, the largest growing segment in the beer industry.
"The Wynne Liberals' decision to limit annual supermarket beer sales to the equivalent of less than 300 six-packs a day isn't going to have an impact on the real job creators in Ontario, the province's craft brewers," said PC critic Todd Smith.
Sousa defended the government's decision not to allow beer sales in every grocery store, saying it's important to protect Ontario's low-cost distribution system because it helps keep prices lower than in the rest of Canada.
"We're protecting the price of beer, enabling it to be affordable to consumers while increasing access," said Sousa. "We want to take advantage of the efficiencies of our distribution system as well as our recycling program."
Beer prices will be the same at all retail outlets across Ontario, including grocery stores and brewers' on-site outlets, and no one can offer discounts.
Sousa didn't directly respond to questions about whether grocery stores could pay a penalty or premium if they want to sell more beer than their limit.
The final plans for modernizing beer sales should be ready within weeks, and will include the six-packs in grocery stores and sales of six and 12-packs in 651 Liquor Control Board outlets. Earlier this week, Sousa unveiled a program to sell growlers of beers and have "craft beer zones" in 25 LCBO stores. The Beer Store will remain the only place to buy cases of 24.
