Under the current system, which has been in place for 11 years, liquor stores pay a provincial levy for every litre of beer they purchase from breweries.
The amount of tax paid is less for smaller breweries than for large ones, a difference designed to level the playing field between startups and giant multinationals like Molson Coors and Labatt.
But while other provinces have chosen to boost their local brewing industries by limiting imports or promoting local products at government-controlled liquor board stores, Alberta's craft brewers get no such support. Alberta's privatized liquor industry means retailers are free to stock their shelves with whatever they want.
Liberal MLA Kent Hehr said that puts local startup brewers at a disadvantage, and the only way to rectify it is to give local companies tax breaks.
"Right now, it makes no sense for businesses to start here or for small craft brewers to stay in the province," Hehr said. "If Alberta wants to get serious about creating the conditions to have a local craft brewing industry - like B.C. has, like Saskatchewan has, like almost all other jurisdictions have - it has to get with the times and adopt similar rules and regulations that make a small craft brewing industry competitive."
Amid all the talk, one local midsized brewer feels unfairly targeted. Minhas Craft Brewery - owned by a Calgary brother and sister - recently opened a micro-brewery in the city, but has been criticized by Hehr and others because the majority of its beer is brewed in Wisconsin. (The Minhas siblings say purchasing a brewery in Alberta was unaffordable when they started out.)
Ravinder Minhas said altering the current tax structure to favour only brewed-in-Alberta product would be devastating to his company.
hmmmm.....?