Ontario alcohol expansion not related to early election speculation: minister

In the face of early election speculation, Ontario’s finance minister insists the Ford government’s decision to shell out $225 million to supercharge its timeline for beer and wine in convenience stores is about honouring a longstanding commitment, not future ballots.

During the spring, the province announced it was paying up to a quarter of a billion dollars to break an exclusivity contract with the privately-owned Beer Store 18 months early to push alcohol into 8,500 new stores.

The move came as Premier Doug Ford repeatedly avoided questions about a potential early election, speculation that has since seen nominations and deadlines set for sitting government members almost two years before the next election is set to take place.

Asked on Wednesday if The Beer Store payment and accelerated booze timeline were about an early election, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy denied the suggestion.

“It was done because we made a commitment in 2018 to do that,” he told reporters.

“We campaigned in 2018 on that and then through COVID we weren’t able to complete that, so we re-upped in 2022 to open up convenience stores and grocery stores.”

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The agreement for $225 million with The Beer Store was reached to stop the company from shedding jobs across Ontario if liberalized alcohol sales squeeze its stores out. The money, the government has said, is set to only be paid out for costs confirmed costs the company can demonstrate.

Bethlenfalvy said the amount paid to The Beer Store is “pretty small right now” compared to the overall figure of $225 million.

“We’re scrutinizing every penny that comes in — that was to protect jobs and make the transition. That would have happened at any point of time, whether early time or late,” he said.

The $225-million cost has been the subject of heated debate with opposition parties, led by the Ontario Liberals, claiming it will end up costing taxpayers more than $1 billion.

The party said the province would be hit on four fronts through the new deal: money for The Beer Store, LCBO rebate fees, a wholesaler discount and lost licence fees.

During a committee appearance on Wednesday, Ontario NDP finance critic Catherine Fife pressed Bethlenfalvy on the numbers.

“Other provinces, minister, they have a licensing fee to be able to tell alcohol,” she said. “But Ontario has forgone that, you’ve decided there are no licensing fees for convenience stores or for grocery stores. Do you know what the lost revenue would be for doing that?”

Bethlanfalvy countered it was “not lost revenue” before pivoting to talk about taxes and fees. Later, he said he didn’t want to “speculate” on what revenue the LCBO might lose from the change.

“You shouldn’t have to speculate, this should be costed out,” Fife charged. “You should have done your fiscal due diligence and costed out what this is going to amount to.”

This week, Ontario’s financial watchdog, the Financial Accountability Officer of Ontario, accepted a request from the Ontario Liberals to take a deep dive into the costs and potential lost revenue of the government’s plan.

“I’ll let the FAO do their work but I’ve heard the people of Ontario and they wanted us to move forward,” Bethlenfalvy said Wednesday, suggesting his decision would stand regardless of what the watchdog finds.

Premier Ford has ruled out an early election at any point in 2024 but has remained coy about whether or not he would consider an early ballot next year.

The election is currently scheduled to take place in June 2026.

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