“Ontarians make awesome beer! The world needs to drink it! Government, will you lower our taxes to unleash a piece of Ontario’s industrial might or continue the prohibition-era policies that suppress our ability to compete?”

A change in government taxation policy is necessary, according to the CEO of a North Bay craft brewery, if his firm and hundreds of others in Ontario are to reach new heights in their business.

According to Mike Harrison of New Ontario Brewing, “There is no question that the beer industry in Ontario pays the highest taxes in the nation.” It hinders not only our capacity to generate employment but also our capacity to release a portion of Ontario’s economic might on the global stage. In Ontario, an outstanding sector is attempting to take off.  Due to taxes, outdated rules, and outdated policies, Ontario’s manufacturing sector is being choked off.

According to this CBC story, although Ontario’s tax system does not take into consideration the size or amount of production, Alberta and British Columbia have shifted to a tiered tax structure that is based on the capacity and output of the brewery. This has resulted in a discrepancy in taxes paid of hundreds of thousands of dollars.  

Craft brewers in Ontario must pay a basic beer tax of 39.5% per litre, a beer volume tax of 17.5 cents per litre, and, if necessary, an environmental tax of 8.9% every non-refillable beer container.

“Imagine being innovative, and creative, and having explosive growth potential but being starved of what you need to grow: profit,” Harrison goes on to say. That describes the present situation in the brewing sector in Ontario. On the one hand, the government made investments to help get us all going, and on the other hand, they celebrated our success by keeping the overtaxation laws that date back to Prohibition and are wildly out of step with taxes in other markets.

Read the full story HERE. 

SOURCE: Bay Today
PHOTO CREDIT: Supplied