Many of you may be aware that taxation on beer is, basically, one size fits all. Until you get into really high alcohol (>12%) or really low alcohol (<3%) everything is taxed the same in BC. This has created a culture in BC where strong alcohol beers are the norm, we are all pretty used to it here but I’m sure we’ve all had visitors from out of province who have found themselves suddenly quite plastered from just a couple of Fat Tugs. Many countries and jurisdictions don’t do it this way, they have a sliding scale which taxes higher alcohol beers more than lower alcohol beers and it looks like BC is heading that way too. Many also have marked glassware, advertise volumes and ABVs clearly so that the consumer can make an informed decision.
Recommendation 18 From the liquor review states: LDB should consider tying minimum prices to the amount of alcohol (e.g., a beer with seven per cent alcohol would have a higher minimum price than a beer with four per cent alcohol) When Paddy and I met with John Yap he asked us what we thought about about this possibility – we side-stepped the question as we had no idea this was something that was being considered and CAMRA BC had no official position. Since then we have considered both sides of the argument and at our recent BC Executive Summit we decided to cautiously support the move with one condition: that the government matches the tax hikes on bigger beers with exactly proportional cuts in lower alcohol beers to maintain their net-zero mandate for changes to the liquor code. 
If this turns out to be a cynical tax-grab in the guise of public safety then CAMRA BC would withdraw support but I believe that if handled well this would be beneficial and helpful to everyone in the community: Consumers, Licencees and Brewers. I expect that some will denounce such a move by the government as onerous and unfair, perhaps even accusing them of stifling creativity or punishing breweries that specialize in higher proof styles but provided they make cuts to lower alcohol beers we would hopefully see these brewers getting creative with smaller styles like Milds, AKs, Folköls and “three-two beers” some of which have almost vanished from the face of the earth and are ripe for re-evaluation and re-introduction. This would certainly make an interesting change to the traditional & repetitive styles that most new breweries have as their regular line up providing a whole new slew of styles to create, conquer and pair with food!
CAMRA BC – Vancouver Branch has already been leading the way with encouraging production of lower alcohol beers that still have a big flavour with our annual Spring Sessional Cask Festival now entering its 3rd year (tickets still available for May 10th 2014 at the Cobalt) and a firm favourite among those craft-beer geeks who know that high alcohol is no guarantee of high quality. Recently CAMRA BC’s Advocacy sub-committee has sent a letter to the government CAMRA BC will continue to advocate on behalf of the consumer and whenever the BC Government announces a change we’ll be right there fighting for you and if we think that this is just a bullshit tax-grab we will tell you straight!
Adam Chatburn
President, CAMRA BC – Vancouver Branch
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