No, it’s not an April Fools’ joke.
A so-called recession-proof industry might take a hit today as B.C.’s Liquor Distribution Branch introduces a higher minimum price for liquor: an additional $1 for 750-millitre bottles. Thankfully, the price hikes apply only to hard-alcohol sales and will not affect beer and wine.
Reports of the price hikes first surfaced in February, after liquor retailers received notice of the changes. No announcements or press releases were issued from B.C.’s Housing and Social Development, the ministry responsible for the Liquor Distribution Branch.
According to the CBC, NDP public-safety critic Mike Farnworth criticized the new prices as hidden tax increases. “It is a sneaky, underhanded, back door way in which this government is gouging consumers in the province of B.C. They didn’t have the nerve to say we’re going to increase liquor prices in the budget, so they’re doing it a back door way,” Farnworth said.
During a sitting of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Minister of Housing and Social Development Rich Coleman said that alcohol prices are periodically adjusted following comparisons to liquor rates across Canada. The provincial government expects $7 million in annual revenue from the price adjustments.
The price hikes come at a time when more and more politicians and law-enforcement professionals are denouncing prohibition, citing less gang violence and more tax revenue as benefits of ending the costly war on drugs.
B.C. liquor prices were last increased in 2008 by $1 per litre.
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Comments
On the heels of the HST this just reeks of a cash grab by the so-called Liberals. Their agenda is, and has always been, to A) police all citizens' morality by way of a retrograde vice tax, B) keep the poorer citizens disenfranchised by forcing them to pay excess even for the cheapest form of leisure under the guise of "tough love", and C) buy a whole lot of golf time at the country club for themselves and their cronies in the process.
This is a kick in the babymakers to anyone running a small restaurant or bar. As if small business in BC (or their wiped-out customers) need any more such kicks. And if anyone thinks more expensive liquor will deter homeless drunks from drinking, think again -- it'll just make them more desperate and perhaps violent.
Whether you're a liberal, conservative or libertarian, the BC Liberals are the worst of all worlds. Get rid of them before they steal the very shirt off your back. Either that, or start investing in the moonshine economy before all the gangsters do it first.
Second you setup more booze stores
Third you heavily market the booze
Forth you increase the prices
Fifth you heavily market the booze
Six police make priorities bums not drunks
Seven premier is the biggest partier in the legislature
Eighth heavily market booze stores
Ninth premier makes drinking and driving all the trend
Eleven police try drinking and driving to see if it improves there job
Twelve police ensure booze confiscated gets mix and ice
Thirteen give people a reason to drink
Booze sells are up 25% and the premier says lets drink to that as its not like it can be an problem look at me I can drink and drive and I'm a respected member of the community, well 12% of the community if you want to get technical.