From 1um Next April, the minimum price for beer in Quebec will rise by 3.9%, after rising by 6.8% in 2023.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, a box of 24 was selling for $25.95. As of April 1, 2024, the price is $31.57. That's an increase of 22%…
In other words, beer contributes significantly to inflation.
Completely absurd
We can understand that there is a minimum price for milk or a minimum wage for work. In the one case we protect our food sovereignty and our farmers, in the second case we protect our workers.
But for beer it's an economic absurdity. The only winners are the big breweries, who benefit greatly from this. In 2023, Molson-Coors' net income increased by 37%.
In Quebec, beer consumption has been declining for 20 years, largely offset by wine and spirits, the prices of which are not fixed. Between 2004 and 2022, the average consumption of beer by Quebecers per year increased from 95 to 74 liters, but also from 17 to 24 liters of wine.
As in other industries, the minimum tariff imposes a higher price on consumers and concentrates profits in the hands of a few multinational companies.
The paternalistic state and its puritanical scientists
It was public health that recommended the introduction of the minimum price in 1994. Scientists talk about “harm reduction.” We believe, rightly or wrongly, that by introducing a minimum price for beer we will save people from themselves.
This is a paternalistic approach.
When Quebec lifted prohibition in 1921, it created the so-called Liquor Police, a paramilitary surveillance service that existed until 1961 and was then integrated into the Sûreté du Québec.
Today, Quebecers' relationship with alcohol is still driven by beliefs and values they adopted from Catholicism. We are also seeing a puritanical tendency among alcohol researchers who have become abstinence advocates.
For example, the Canadian Center on Substance Use and Addiction even released its new alcohol consumption guidelines in 2022.
Their most important finding: “There is no level of alcohol consumption without health risks.”
Ah great? But in that sense, isn't it a bit like leaving the house? Go for a stroll? Eat an apple? Live? Obviously, all of this is “not without risk”!
When a reputable establishment allows itself to publish such nonsense, we can suspect that something fishy is afoot.
Protecting SAQ's profits
It's also hard not to believe that a minimum price on beer makes beer relatively less attractive compared to wine and spirits, which are the SAQ's monopoly.
All provinces except Alberta and Quebec impose a minimum price on all alcoholic beverages.
In 2022, major brewers have discussed introducing a minimum price for all alcohol, recalling the “free pass” that the SAQ is entitled to in terms of pricing and advertising.
Two weights, two measures?