London Beer Store latest to close as union calls on Ontario voters to make alcohol sales an issue
United Food and Commercial Workers says 23 stores have closed since sales expanded in May
The union representing Beer Store employees is calling on Ontario voters to make alcohol sales an election issue after a retail outlet in London became the latest to close.
The union said 23 Beer Stores across the province have shut down since Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative Party accelerated the sale of beer, wine and ready-made cocktails in corner stores, gas stations and supermarkets last May.
"These are good-paying jobs," said John Nock, president of Local 12R24 of the United Food and Commercial Workers ..(UFCW). "For the consumer, prices will also be going up. There's no limit on how much [stores] can charge. There's only a floor, not a ceiling."
On Monday, two days before Ford dissolved provincial parliament, triggering an election, Ontario's budget watchdog released a report showing the changes to alcohol sales will cost taxpayers roughly $1.4 billion by 2030. The Financial Accountability Office (FAO) took into account lost sales, lower tax revenue and paying out a contract to the Beer Store.
The Ministry of Finance had said that in order to get alcohol into stores as quickly as possible, it cancelled a contract with the brewers who own the Beer Store, at a cost of $225 million.
A 10-year agreement signed by the previous Liberal government gave The Beer Store exclusive rights to sell 12 and 24 packs of beer. It was set to expire in 2025.
"What a disastrous waste of money. Once again, Doug Ford has been caught red handed," Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said in a statement Monday.
The other leaders, including the Green Party's Mike Schreiner, echoed that, adding the money should have been spent to improve the health-care system.
"No one's ever said, 'I can't find a place to get beer,'" said Nock, who is encouraging UFCW members to vote with the future of their jobs in mind. "I hear a lot about hallway medicine, hospitals and schools. I don't think spending millions on this change was a priority."
The full-time employees working at the London Beer Store have been transferred to one of the city's nine other stores.
Nock said the next challenge for the Beer Store will be if grocery stores are forced to take back empties, a move he says the PCs had intended to implement by 2026.
According to Ford, the expansion is a modernization of the system that would allow people to be "treated like adults."