Controversy over 'made-up numbers' and Ontario's 'billions of dollars in alcohol waste' | Globalnews.ca

As politicians and new cabinet ministers leave Queen's Park for the long summer break, debate over the cost of delivering signed documents looms Ford Administration The policy will be continued soon.

In late May, Ontario Premier Doug Ford held a news conference in an increasingly familiar venue: a gas station in Toronto, with makeshift shelves of beer, wine and mixed drinks behind him.

The prime minister and finance minister jointly announced that an already public plan to sell beer in grocery stores and corner shops will be significantly accelerated. The new policy means the phased expansion will start from August 1, rather than early 2026.

Eligible convenience stores will be able to sell beer, cider, wine and ready-to-drink cocktails after Sept. 5, and all grocery and mass merchandisers will be able to sell those products, including bulk packages, after Oct. 31. The government says the changes will add 8,500 new places to buy alcohol in Ontario over time.

So what about the cost? That depends on who you ask.

Ford and Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said up to $225 million has been set aside to help beer stores transition and keep some stores open.

The Ontario Liberals claim the actual cost is more than $1 billion.

Days after the announcement, the Ontario Liberals made a bold statement suggesting the actual cost of the change is over $1 billion.

The party says the new deal will hit the provincial government in four areas: funding for beer stores, rebate fees from the LCBO, wholesaler discounts and loss of licensing fees.

To arrive at that figure, the Liberals assumed the full $225 million announced by the government, plus the estimated $375 million that The Beer Store currently pays the LCBO.

The Ford government's beer liberalization plan includes allowing grocery stores to buy product from the LCBO at a 10 per cent discount. The Liberals argue it will cost an “understated sum” of $150 million over two years before the tax rate is renegotiated in 2026.

Finally, the Liberals believe Ontario could raise more than $300 million if it auctioned off liquor licenses instead of allowing stores to sell alcohol for free.

“This $1 billion alcohol waste project is the latest example of Doug Ford lining his own pockets at the expense of Ontarians,” Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said in a statement.

“Ford's friends at the big grocery chains have been making billions of dollars in record profits, and America's big box stores are about to make a killing.”

The Ontario Liberals say those figures are likely just the “tip of the iceberg” and don't include the revenue lost to government coffers if fewer people shop at LCBO stores.

Confronted with the figures released Thursday, Minister Bethlenfalvey said the Liberal figures were not true, but he would not reveal some other costs beyond the $225 million paid to beer stores.

“These are made-up numbers,” he said. “The only way to get to that number is to increase fees and taxes, and that is not our plan, in fact the exact opposite.”

In particular, Bethlenfalvy questioned the calculation of losses of more than $300 million due to uncollected license fees.

“That’s absolutely wrong,” he said.

“If you took the fees that previous governments had imposed and extrapolated them out whether they were licence fees or other fees, then you would come up with a figure. But that's not what this government is doing.”

Ontario announced an accelerated timeline for alcohol prohibition in May, a move that sparked rumors of an early election, but the government failed to quell the rumors, with the premier declaring the policy an effort to “finally allow people to be treated as adults.”

Ford strenuously argued that the $225 million his government would pay to the Beer Stores (owned by Labatt, Sleeman and Molson) was not “money out of their pockets” but was meant to avoid mass unemployment among Beer Store workers.

“What we're doing is supporting the frontline workers at the beer stores … We're going to be reviewing every step of the way to make sure it's being distributed in the right way,” Ford said.

Bertram Falvey declined to reveal the final cost of the early expansion of alcohol sales, other than to reiterate that he would include that information in regular financial updates.

“We said numbers as high as $225 million. We said we would update those numbers when the market opens,” he said.

“There’s always a cost and we don’t deal in what-ifs.”

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