How does minimum pricing work in Canada?
Canada has a federated governance structure with 10 provinces and three territories each of which have different approaches to the distribution, sale and regulation of alcohol and its consumption. The majority of Canadian provinces have some form of government control
Over the distribution of alcohol with most having a mixture of government owned and privately
Owned liquor stores [38]. In the majority of cases, the government-owned distribution authority sets a minimum dollar value per litre of beer, wine, spirit, alcoholic sodas, ciders or other specific beverage types. Some provinces such as Ontario (all products) and Quebec (for beer) adjust minimum price rates each year with the rate of inflation. British Columbia does so
only occasionally and to different degrees and frequencies for different beverage types. In Saskatchewan, minimum price rates are adjusted to reflect the alcohol content of a particular beverage type. For example beer greater than 8.5% alcohol by volume (ABV) has a proportionately higher minimum price than those with an alcohol content by volume of below 8.5%, 7.5% or 6.5% ABV. This approach to minimum pricing was introduced in April 2010 and
Its impact on alcohol sales of different beverages was evaluated in one of the published reports from the Canadian research program [6]. In practice, for the great majority of alcoholic products for sale in the province, Saskatchewan’s approach to minimum alcohol pricing is very similar to the proposed MUPs in Scotland, England and Wales.
It is also important to note that a substantial amount of alcohol sold in Canadian provinces
Is retailed from private liquor outlets while government owned liquor stores differ only in
That their staff are unionized, the stores tend to be larger and are open for slightly shorter hours. In British Columbia about half the alcohol sold for off premise consumption is from
Some form of privately owned store [39]. The Canadian consumer’s experience in government owned liquor store and their responsiveness to price changes is likely to be similar to that of
consumers in other countries with fully privatized systems such as the UK i.e. the frequent charge from critics of MUP that the Canadian experience is irrelevant is not justified.