Interprovincial trade barriers in Canada have long hindered the seamless flow of goods, including beer, across provincial lines. A 2016 report by the federal Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce highlighted that these internal trade barriers could be costing the Canadian economy up to $130 billion annually, equating to approximately $7,500 per Canadian household.
How did we get there?
The problem is that Canada is simply an insanely large country and that after prohibition was repealed, every province created laws to regulate the sale, production and consumption of beer, wine and spirits. For the most part, this was fine as every region had multiple breweries to serve the local population.
Over time, all these locally-owned breweries were taken over and incorporated into Molson, Labatt and Carling-O’Keefe’s portfolios, this was also a form of protectionism, in a sense. These breweries didn’t have any incentive. to have a large central plant in each region at the time, so they relied on factories that were very old and antiquated to brew the beer.
From the 1970s onward, every region had ‘its’ beer, but in order to get into any market a brewery had to physically brew in the province it was serving to be available for sale at restaurants, beer lounges or off-sales (such as Uncle Ben’s Beer in Western Canada).
Things changed in the 1980s and 90s when some interprovincial laws were amended, allowing the (then) Big Three to close plants and either create new more modern facilities or equip the facilities with newer, more efficient equipment.
I still remember visiting my aunt in Winnipeg in 1997. We passed the last remaining Labatt Brewery plant, which had closed the year before. I told my aunt that if my mom had drunk more beer, the plant would still be open!
Manitoba : an example for interprovincial trade barriers ?
Now I’m done with a bit of a history lesson, but a lot of the laws that were put in place a hundred years ago are still in effect today. Manitoba is an anomaly of a province—prior to 2016, Manitoba only had two breweries. One was a regional brewery that catered mostly to the masses, while the other was an award-winning craft brewery named Half Pint Brewing that influenced my beer tastes the moment I first tried their beer. 2016 wasn’t that long ago, and practically every other part of Canada had a massive craft beer market by then.
So, since there were only two breweries in my province, what did I do? Well, the Manitoba Liquor Commission was pretty good at promoting Canadian beer where I was lucky enough to see beers from all over the country from breweries such as Dunham (QC), Garrison (NS), Paddock Wood (SK), and Flying Monkeys (ON). I would also ask a friend in another province if they wanted to exchange a ‘sample’ of beer from here so I could try a ‘sample’ of beer from where they live, which was actually pretty much illegal in most of Canada.
I had a great conversation with Canadian politician Dan Albas back in 2012 to discuss how to make Canadian craft beer more accessible to people in other parts of Canada. At that time, Albas was working on a bill to amend the Intoxicating Liquors Act to allow for the interprovincial importation of wine from one province to another.
The bill was unanimously passed by the House of Commons back in 2012. I had high hopes that it would include beer, but it never did. However, Manitoba and Nova Scotia later removed restrictions but Manitoba and Nova Scotia did remove restrictions for interprovincial liquor/beer for personal consumption not long after.
COVID hit hard back in 2020 and the craft beer scene hasn’t been the same. Many hard-working people throughout the industry lost their jobs, lots of breweries closed and the prices skyrocketed due to increased costs. Luckily for me being in Manitoba, nearly every brewery and winery in the province offered home delivery, whether it be directly delivered right to your door by the brewery, or through a courier or Canada Post.
During that time, I was quarantining for almost a year at my parents’ farm, so I ordered several deliveries of beer to be picked up right at the post office. I also discovered that a few distilleries were delivering to pretty much all of Canada so I made sure to stock up on some real nice Canadian Whisky for special occasions.
Sure, this is all nice for me but there’s much of Canada that’s still pretty restricted when it comes to interprovincial trade of beer, with the biggest example being in Quebec. Any time I tried to order beer from anywhere, the first thing I noticed was that they wouldn’t ship to Quebec. Luckily for Quebec, they have some of the best breweries in the entire country right at home – Bas Canada, Messorem, and Auval are just a few examples. Unfortunately for me, I can’t just order a 4-pack online, and it’s still illegal in Quebec for someone to send me beer.
How Can Canadian Craft Breweries Export to Other Provinces?
So, what needs to be done? It’s definitely time to remove the barriers allowing easier for the sale of beer from any Canadian province to another. Beer sales are stagnant and for the most part almost all breweries only have their own province to be able to market and sell within, unless if they’re willing to put up a web store to cater to a larger market such as Kilter in Winnipeg or 2 Crows in Halifax, but some breweries just can’t afford to do that.
I don’t know what the million dollar answer is for how to make it reality as we know that every liquor commission wants a cut on the sale, so there’s the issue on how it gets taxed, how does it get shipped (ie winter) and would it be worth a customer’s time to do so in a first place? During COVID when I’d do orders my friends would tell me that I’m wasting my money due to shipping costs – These are all things I have no idea how logistics will work once the interprovincial barriers are removed.
I welcome the day when I can get beer from thirteen provinces and territories and help do my part to keep the Canadian craft beer industry afloat.
I’m Cody Lobreau, your typical Canadian beer enthusiast behind BeerCrank.ca — a Manitoba-based blog dedicated to celebrating Canadian craft beer. Over the past two decades, I’ve been able to sample an incredible variety of brews from across the country. I may be a bit biased, but I truly believe Canada’s craft beer scene ranks among the best in the world.
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