CHATHAM, Ont. — Government plans to expand wine and beer sales to as many as 300 additional grocery stores threatens an important market for Ontario’s farmers, says the president of the Association of Canadian Distillers.
“In Ontario, everything we produce is produced with things grown in Ontario. Underline that — everything,” Jan Westcott told the Kent Federation of Agriculture’s annual meeting Dec. 3.
“We’re not asking anyone for anything more. We just want to be treated the same .… They (the government) are so focused on the wine industry and craft beers that they’re discriminating against the spirit industry and Ontario’s grain farmers.”
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Windsor is home to North America’s largest distillery, and there are others in Amherstburg, Collingwood, Brampton and Grimsby.
Westcott said Canadians have a taste for domestically produced spirits. Sixty percent of the spirits consumed in Canada were produced domestically, and products such as Canadian whisky are appreciated globally.
Ontario’s agriculture ministry estimated a few years ago that the industry has a $1.5 billion impact on the province’s economy.
It’s connected to 6,000 jobs and represents a market for 40,000 to 50,000 acres of Ontario corn production and smaller amounts of wheat, rye and barley.
Westcott said spirits should also be treated equally when it comes to taxation. Spirits sold in Ontario are taxed four times higher than wine and three times higher than beer on a strictly alcohol-to-alcohol content perspective, she added.
She said it’s a myth that the type of alcohol contained in wine and beer is different from that in spirits.
The alcohol content is about the same whether it’s a bottle of beer, a five-ounce glass of wine or a 1.5 ounce shot of liquor, she said.
