Artisan Ales’ bitter-sweet victory against Notley NDP is a win for Alberta (Guest： Bo Vitanov)
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
121.18735
Summary
Craft beer in Alberta is about to get a whole lot cheaper, and tonight I'm joined by the woman who fought the Alberta government and won, and she's saving you a bunch of money. Sheila Gunn-Reed has been covering the story of how the NDP started tinkering with the liquor prices in Alberta from the very beginning, right after they got elected, they started enacting protectionist policies against beer imports. And instead of backing off and admitting that they were wrong and that they made a mistake, the NDP government persisted, even trying to punish those Alberta small businesses who dared challenge their bad policies with frivolous appeals. After trade tribunal and trade tribunal ruled against the NDP's policies, the government was forced to go back to how things were in the beginning, before the NDP came to power.
Transcript
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Craft Beer in Alberta is about to get a whole lot cheaper and tonight I'm joined by the woman
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who fought the Alberta government and won and she's saving you a bunch of money.
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I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gunn Show.
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We've been covering the story of how the NDP started tinkering with the liquor prices in Alberta from the very beginning.
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Right after they got elected, they started enacting protectionist policies against beer imports
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and then they started subsidizing Alberta microbrewers every single month with Alberta tax dollars.
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It was a poorly thought out plan to bolster Alberta's brewers
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that had the unintended consequences of harming Alberta beer importers.
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The protectionist policies and tax hikes spawned trade disputes between provinces
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and legal challenges from Alberta small businesses against the government.
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And instead of backing off and admitting that they were wrong and that they made a mistake,
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the NDP government persisted, even trying to punish those Alberta small businesses
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who dared challenge their bad policies with frivolous appeals after trade tribunal
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and trade tribunal ruled against the NDP's policies.
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But now those small businesses have utterly defeated the NDP government,
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forcing the government to go back to how things were in the beginning, before the NDP.
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And a six-pack of beer is about to get a whole lot cheaper in Alberta in 2019.
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Joining me tonight to tell her side of the story about how she fought the behemoth of government
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So joining me now from Calgary via Skype is Beau Vittinoff from Artisan Ales.
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Beau, I wanted to have you on at the end of the year because you've been engaged
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in this ongoing David and Goliath battle with the Alberta government
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Why don't you give us a Coles Notes version of your battle
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and then we'll talk a little bit about your victory.
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So, three years ago, almost three years ago exactly,
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the NDP government changed the way the beer tax or the beer markup worked.
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Before that, just like pretty much every other jurisdiction in Canada,
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So, the tax that was charged on beer from really small microbreweries
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was substantially lower than the markup that was charged on the beer from the big guys.
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And what the Alberta government did was they completely upended this.
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They left a graduated beer markup for beer from Alberta, Saskatchewan, and BC
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because they said they were honouring the New West Partnership trade agreement.
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But, of course, that meant they weren't honouring any other trade agreement.
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So, the markup on our beers went up 525% overnight, from 20 cents a litre to $1.25.
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So, our products became really expensive and uncompetitive in the market.
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We, along with some other agencies and breweries, contacted the government,
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So, we knew that we couldn't afford to take them to court.
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We fought them through a tribunal system that's attached to the AIT,
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which is a free trade agreement that all the provinces
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and the federal government of Canada signed in the mid-90s.
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In the meantime, they were also sued by Steam Whistle,
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And they were given six months to become compliant with the trade agreement.
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And so, that compliance date was November 29th.
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They actually were not compliant on November 29th.
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they announced that they were changing the policy.
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And they became compliant a couple of days back,
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The system went back pretty much to where it was three years ago.
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In fact, we, being Mike and I, the owners of Artisan Ales,
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when we were asked what we wanted from the government,
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we wanted them to go back to a graduated system,
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And we also said that because their reasoning for what they had done in the past
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was that Alberta beer was being treated unfairly in other jurisdictions,
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we had said at the time that they should spend their time fighting what they thought was wrong
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in other provinces through the AIT because it's really set up more for government-to-government.
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And that's, in fact, what they are now going to do.
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They are launching a complaint against Ontario.
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It's kind of bittersweet because our business has been devastated in the meantime.
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You know, it really was a David and Goliath story
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because you're just this little beer importer in Calgary
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and you found yourself taking on the whole of the Alberta government
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just for free trade, something that the provinces are supposed to do.
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Now, something else was happening in the middle of all of this.
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While they were forcing a markup on imported beers,
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they were also cycling that money back to Alberta microbrewers
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and giving them a grant every single month to produce beer in Alberta,
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which, again, put you at an even greater disadvantage.
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Yeah, so what happened was, and I kind of failed to mention it before,
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and after Steam Whistle filed for the injunction in court
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that they really were offside by giving, you know,
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special treatment to Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan breweries.
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So what they did about a year, actually less than a year
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after they instituted that, you know, the change that I talked about,
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they made a second change and they jacked up the markup of all beer
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and where everybody from outside of the New West Partnership was.
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But as you mentioned, they basically set up a grant program
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through the Ministry of Agriculture where they were in effect
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getting the Alberta breweries back to the $0.10 a litre
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or, you know, the $0.15 a litre, wherever they were.
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So we were successful in our complaint in basically saying
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that what you can't do directly, you also can't do indirectly.
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So just because you've made it a two-step process
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instead of a one-step process, it really amounts to the same thing.
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And then subsequently that was reinforced in court
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I believe it was the Small Brewers Development Program,
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to micro-brewers in Alberta with money taken from everybody else.
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Now, the Alberta government tried to do something else to you.
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They instituted an unconstitutional beer markup.
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Then you appealed it or then they appealed it and you won again.
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But in the meantime, the Alberta government tried to put you on the hook
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for their legal fees, even though their law was unconstitutional.
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because this isn't court, when you go through the AIT,
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then I think you can basically have the opposite side
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So it doesn't work quite that way through the AIT.
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The lawyers for both sides basically submit their perspective
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And, yeah, they tried to pretty much stick us with most of the fees
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stick artisan ales with costs from this tribunal.
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because they had no new evidence or arguments to make.
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So, yeah, it was pretty frustrating, irritating.
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because it sounds like the government was hoping
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they, just the fact that they've still appealed
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are from basically an internationally known law firm.
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and, you know, try and basically just run out the clock
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uh, the last six years' worth of financial statements
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And, basically, um, the AGLC year-end is March 31st.
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If you look at what's happened since March 31st, 2015,
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two months later, uh, the NDP took over government.
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So, since that time, beer volumes are down almost 10%.
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Beer volumes are less than 91% of where they were on.
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and all the money that they've spent on the grants,
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and they're actually further behind than when they started.
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and, basically, if the volumes were where they were in 2015,
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they control the beer and booze sales in the province,
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but they've also managed to cost the government
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because of the way that the numbers are presented,