No Cheers for the 2017 Budget!
Will an increase in the price of beer lead to a decrease in it’s purchase?
By Shira Kogut on Mar. 29, 2017
We learned in “Beer Drinking in Canada” us Canadians drink a heck of a lot of beer, 22,700,000 hectolitres to be precise.
Will this number decrease now that the federal government has tied a 2% excise tax increase to the price of beer?
Well this year that’ll only affect the price of 24 beers by 5 cents, but as it is now tied to the Consumer Price Index that means the price will continue to rise perhaps creating a slow reins on the purchase of beer. Most experts say that beer, despite increases in price, tends to remain stable as people are willing to give up other things instead of it.
Suppliers could choose to absorb the cost, but that is really a short term solution to a long term problem unless they plan on subsidizing our beer forever, in which case I’m game!
“It’s ridiculous what they’ve prepared. They’ll be putting their hands in Canadians’ pockets every year without telling them about it. Trudeau Sr. introduced a similar thing in 1981 and it was repealed because of the damage it was doing to the beverage industry.”
-Luke Harford, President of Beer Canada in response to the new Trudeau Budget
For more details and exact numbers check out James Risdon’s article in the Chronicle Herald
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