A Message From The President
When news broke last week on the Van East Beer blog that Growler fills were to be given an additional tax it was hard to see it as anything other as a tax directly on craft beer, hitting both the burgeoning craft beer industry in BC and those people with great taste who choose to support local ale artisans (that’s you!). Naturally CAMRA BC was outraged and we immediately created the #savethegrowlers campaign which has collected over 700 signatures in only 5 days – the most signatures of any CAMRA BC’s campaigns! Thanks again to everyone who has taken a moment to sign and if you already have signed please encourage others to – I’d love to present a 1000 signatures to the government!
You may not have a growler, or even know what one is (you should – they are awesome), but when we look at all the benefits that growlers have it’s even more mystifying why a supposedly pro-environment, pro-small business, low taxation government would make an unfair cash grab like this, especially on the heels of such positive changes for the craft beer industry a few weeks before. Apparently the billion dollars they collect in tax on alcohol isn’t quite enough.
CAMRA BC President Rick Green and myself have had some productive meetings with local politicians and we are heading over to the Legislature in Victoria next week to meet with more MLAs so that we can make it clear just how important these issues are to responsible, craft-beer drinking voters and to find out what their plans are for after the election. I’ll have a full report in the next newsletter.
Tickets for our new series of Craft beer education classes are going on sale shortly, so check the education section of the website and sign up soon, these are going to sell out quickly!
Finally, a huge thank you to Rebecca Whywoman and her Becks Beer Blog for taking the time to write a wonderful piece about CAMRA. Rebecca was was CAMRA Vancouver’s Treasurer last year, she was one of the first friends I made at CAMRA and remains one of my favourite beer-nerds to carouse with. Catch her regular spot on CBC Radio One’s “On the Coast” with Stephen Quinn. Last night she said some more lovely things about CAMRA and talked about the #savethegrowlers campaign.
Adam Chatburn, President, CAMRA BC Vancouver Chapter
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