Beer Canada's Response to the Fall Economic Statement

Beer Canada is disappointed that a freeze on beer taxes was not included in Minister Freeland’s Fall Economic Statement. Over the past several months, Beer Canada and hundreds of businesses across Canada’s hospitality, tourism and agriculture sectors have been calling on the federal government to put a freeze on beer taxes to stimulate Canada’s economic recovery and protect the 149,000 Canadian jobs and thousands of Canadian businesses that depend on beer sales.

Canadians already pay some of the highest taxes on beer in the world, and they have gone up four times in the past three years without a vote by Parliamentarians due to the federal government’s automatic escalator tax. This continues to make beer more expensive during a very difficult time for Canadians and the thousands of businesses that depend on beer sales.

From our partner Larry Issacs, President of the Firkin Group of Pubs: “The relief governments are providing is critical to ensuring bars and restaurants have a fighting chance at recovery. But raising taxes, especially taxes on products like beer that account for a significant portion of our sales, is taking a step backwards and is harmful to everyone connected to making, selling and serving beer. Simply put, freezing beer taxes is a small but important measure to support restaurants during this devastating time.”  

Beer Canada, along with our industry partners, will continue to raise awareness of the negative economic impacts of the automatic escalator tax in the hopes that the government repeals it through the 2021 federal budget and prior to the next scheduled increase on April 1, 2021.