Latest / Kvetch & Release / LCBO strike ends; alcohol retail expands

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LCBO strike ends; alcohol retail expands · Kvetch & Release

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Join the conversation The Dan McDonald Show with guest host John Lidke on AM eight
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hundred Let's talk. Hey, good morning everyone, Hope you're all doing well.
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Eleven thirty four here on this twenty third of July. It's a Tuesday
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in Ontario. And what does that mean? Lcbos are open again after a
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two week closure. Why? While there was a strike that happened. Of
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course, if you're listening, you're probably aware of it. We've been talking
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about it here on AM eight hundred CLW quite a lot lately. But there
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was a resolution and the agreement has come out. There's an eight percent wage
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increase over three years, the conversion of one thousand casual employees to permanent part
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time positions, and no store closures. That all comes with the expansion of
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alcohol retail sales to convenience stores and further, there'll be more things available at
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big box stores and grocery stores. And there's a timeline and we've met a
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few of those dates. There's a few more that are coming up. Joining
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me to talk about all of this and more is the Member of Provincial Parliament
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for Essex, Anthony We already joins me right now, live in studio.
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Thanks for joining me, Hi John, thanks for having me and I'm happy
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to be here. Thanks so much so. I guess you know right off
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the bat. First off, lcbos are open again. Labor piece has been
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achieved in the alcohol retail sector for union facing, public facing. What's your
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takes right off the bat of where we're at. Well, I think we're
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very happy with where we're at, and I can tell you who else is
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very very happy. In Essex County there are approximately twenty craft wineries, half
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a dozen craft breweries, there are craft sidaries and they are very very happy
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that the Prohibition era rules that were in place for about one hundred years that
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kept them out of the marketplace are now going to be changed and they are
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finally going to be allowed to get into the marketplace where they can sell their
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craft wine, they can sell their craft beer, they can sell their craft
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cider, and they can get their product to consumers in places where consumers want
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to shop. I think it's a very very positive thing and it's definitely very
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positive for the County of Essex and for the crafters in the County of Essex.
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I'm very happy about it. I never thought that we'd actually ever get
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to a point where there would be any changing of how our alcohol distribution system
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worked and retail sales in the province. I thought we were pretty well locked
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in as things were, but COVID changed everything. But having said that,
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it was really I mean, what happened with COVID and the expansion was just
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following through on a lot of things that were promised under the first mandate of
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Premier Ford, which was the liberalization of our alcohol regime from this progressive Conservative
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government. It's not like there was anything new here to most people would be
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able to go, Yeah, this is kind of what we were expecting.
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Yes, that's absolutely correct. This was a promise that was made not only
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in the last election, but also in the twenty eighteen election. It was
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a promise made by the Premiere and Doug Ford has kept his promise. He's
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followed through with the promise that was made. We've now introduced the sale of
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beer and wine into convenience stores. That's going to help a lot of mom
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and pop convenience stores. It's going to create more jobs. And that was
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a promise that was made and it's been kept. You're absolutely correct, of
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no, surprise to anybody. In fact, it's a blueprint that's been used
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in other provinces, particularly in Quebec and in Alberta, which which have had
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very good success with that model. We were adopting the very same model.
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It was a promise made by the premier and now it's been kept. What
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was this strike? You can hear my inflections already high at the starting point
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there. Let me try again, what was this strike about? Because I,
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honestly I don't know what the union inside of this was. All that
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I really heard from them was don't give away two and a half billion dollars
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to private businesses. And I looked through the numbers and I went, where
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is that supposed to be happening? I heard them saying, don't close any
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stores, don't privatize the LCBO, to which I heard, you know pretty
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clearly from your government, were not that's not the plan. Like, what
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was this? What was this past two weeks all about? Well don't It
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certainly wasn't about jobs, because the Premier made it clear that he wanted to
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preserve everyone's job, so he didn't want anybody to lose their job, and
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that, of course has been accomplished. Nobody is going to lose their job.
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The LCBO is going to be a distributor in the province of Ontario,
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and that was important to the Premier and I support, certainly support that one.
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I think what you have to do is ask yourself who is making policy
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in the province of Ontario. Is it your elected officials who you elected during
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an election, or is it a small group of leaders at the p Public
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Service Union who declared quite openly, they declared it that it was their intention
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to reverse government policy. And in my view, your government policy is made
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by the government, which is your elected official, and the union leaders at
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the Public Service Union do not make government policy. I always make a distinction
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between the union leaders and the rank and file members. The rank and file
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members were interested in preserving their jobs and the Premier supported that, but the
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union leaders at APSU wanted to dictate government policy and that's just not going to
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happen. The elect officials make government policy. It was a promise made by
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Premier Ford to introduce wine and beer sales in convenience inconvenience stores and to end
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the monopoly that was created during the prohibition era. We kept that promise and
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it was a promise made, promise kept well. And as you said,
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there are a number of businesses, not just in your writing out in Essex,
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but throughout the entire region here that are going to presumably benefit because they're
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in the backyard already, so they've got the brand recognition, they've already got
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built in marketing and whether or not they're doing advertising campaigns, it'll all be
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reinforced by the fact that they have, you know, hundreds of more access
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points for sales, and these are breweries and sideries and distilleries and wineries.
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This is good for business absolutely. The market should not be dominated by a
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small group of large companies. The market should be open to all of the
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craft brewers and the craft wineries who want to get their product to the market.
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And that's going to be possible now. It wasn't possible before because of
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the archaic rules that were set up during the Prohibition era which have lasted almost
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one hundred years. But now as a result of the policies being introduced by
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the doug Ford government, the craft brewers and the craft wineries and other crafters
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are going to be able to get their product to market and they're going to
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be able to let the consumer decide what the consumer wants, and you,
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the consumer, are going to decide whether or not you want the product.
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You don't have to buy the product that's being dictated to you. You get
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to buy the product that you want. And as you've pointed out, and
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as others have pointed out, the craft brewing industry in particular, has really
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really come a long way in the last ten to twenty years. People are
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specifically planning their tours, specifically planning their vacations around craft breweries and also around
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craft wineries. It's a wonderful tour, it's a wonderful business. It's good
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for Essex County and it's good for the Province of Ontario. Well, listen,
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these producers want to have larger, more sales, more volume sold.
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The sticking point that the unions had made is that we're going to be losing
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out in revenue as a result of this. As I understand it, and
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please correct me if I'm wrong, this is very similar to the cannabis model
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that exists. Whereas in the LCBO is still going to exist, it's still
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going to be the main purchaser of alcohol, the soul purchase of alcohol for
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the province. These stores, these convenience stores, let's say it's the Circle
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K. They get a ten percent discount to purchase it. That's their margin
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that they get to play with for profit. If they wanted to, you
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know, discount even less than that, because they decide they got to get
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rid of some cases or whatever. It might see some sales or something.
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I imagine though, that the business case for it is with more access points,
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there will be more sales to make up for the ten percent discount that's
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being offered. I've heard the suggestion that some people have made, and I
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can tell you that the healthcare system in the province of Ontario is not funded
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by vodka sales. The healthcare budget in twenty eighteen was sixty billion dollars.
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Today it is eighty five billion dollars. That is a forty one percent increase
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in the healthcare budget, and that is funded through taxpayers. It is not
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funded through vodka sales. So I want to let everybody know that you are
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going to have the convenience of shopping for the product of your chow at a
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convenience store or at a sale point which you choose as the consumer, and
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at the same time, the healthcare system has had a funding increase of forty
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one percent. So you don't have to be concerned about whether or not buying
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a bottle of beer is going to pay for the new MRI at Windsor Regional
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Hospital, because that's going to get built anyway. And the new MRI at
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Erie Shores and Lemington is also going to get built, and the new cath
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lab at Windsor Regional Hospital is also going to be built. And it does
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not depend on what brand of beer you drink. That's good to know.
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I'm no math wizard. People who listen to the show know that. But
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I'm pretty confident that two and a half billion dollars in revenue from the LCBO
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is less than eighty billion dollars. I'm pretty confident. I'm pretty confident about
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that too. Okay, there is one thing that I wanted to ask you
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about, and it's been receiving a little bit of Hey. Here, Press
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Progress put out a pe about how the president of the LCBO also sits on
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the board of Directors for the Retail Council of Canada. They take an angle
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here that says that the Retail Council of Canada wants to go and privatize liquor
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sales. I don't want to dive into that argument because again I disagree with
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the track that they're taking. But do you think that there is at all
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an issue with the president of the LCBO serving on the Retail Council of Canada
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or does it make sense that the president of the LCBO would sit on the
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Retail Council of Canada considering the plans that had been announced so long ago from
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this government. Yeah, these are not You don't have to get into high
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falutant explanations or theories about this, that or another thing. The bottom line
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is this. This is the same system that exists in Quebec, Alberta and
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other provinces. Ontario was the last province in this confederation to finally abandon the
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prohibition era rules and go into the modern world. And like I said before,
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you're the consumer. You will decide what brand you drink, you will
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decide where you buy your products, and that is the way it should be.
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That is as it should be. It's hard to believe that it took
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almost one hundred years to finally I mean, I can't say finally end prohibition
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entirely because you know, spirits are still going to be maintained in the exclusive
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domain of the LCBO. But talk about taking a hammer to a system that,
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you know, I think a lot of people have gotten really you know,
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comfortable with, But it doesn't mean it's necessarily the best system. There
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aren't job losses as a result of this. There are a thousand casual jobs
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converted to permanent part time. That brings with its stability, brings with it
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the ability for people to hopefully be able to you know, live better lives.
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Quite frankly, everything is going up in cost these days. So I
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look at this and I never thought that the sky was going to be falling
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as a result of this decision. But I think it's a good thing to
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get people more access. It's convenience, it's choice. Yeah, I mean,
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you've ticked the words right out of my mouth. And this is what
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the premiere has been saying for several years now, and we've delivered on the
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promise that we made in twenty eighteen. If anything is going to be surprising,
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you're going to be surprised at how much life does not change. I
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think that when you wake up tomorrow morning, the world is going to look
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very much the same as it looks today. And those people who said that
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the sky was going to fall and society was going to collapse and horrible,
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terrible things were going to happen, I think those people are going to start
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to realize that, gosh, this was actually a very good decision to make,
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and society is not going to implode like some union leaders suggested it would,
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but rather the consumer is going to be better served, and the crafters
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such as the craft brewers and the craft wineries and the craft cider makers,
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are going to be very happy because they're going to be able to finally get
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their products onto the shelves of convenience stores and supermarkets, whereas previously they were
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denied that opportunity. This is about giving the small operators a chance to get
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their products to market in the face of the big, large companies who have
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been squeezing them out literally for decades. So this is a good thing for
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the small operator. It's a good thing for the little guy. I have
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particularly in mind to several craft brewers in my riding, which is Essex County,
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who are overjoyed at these decisions. The craft wineries have already mentioned.
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We have approximately twenty of them in the County of Essex, and I'm sure
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that many of your listeners John listening to this broadcast today know exactly who I'm
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talking about. The wineries that they've visited in Essex County this summer and last
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summer and the summer before. They're very happy about what's going to happen,
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and I think that generally speaking, consumers across the province of Ontario are very
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very happy. Okay, so we just got some breaking news in right now
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that I want you to react to. This is from the Ontario Public Union
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OPSU communications department response to Doug Ford. In right of doug Ford's comments yesterday
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about LCBO revenues and the strike, several of you have reached out countering Premier
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Doug Ford's lies about LCBO revenues and the LCBO workers strike with facts. I'm
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not going to read through the whole thing. They're taking umbrage with where the
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revenues are coming from, and they're saying, by all reasonable accounts, Ford's
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alcohol Everywhere plan is bad policy that's going to cost Ontarians billions of dollars to
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public service. I thought the strike was over like, are what are we
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doing here? I thought like, how do you put out a statement like
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this after you've accepted the strike, ending the terms like what is happening?
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Well, I would point out that in this statement that you just read,
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they specifically referred to policy, right, They specifically referred to policy. And
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again I'll draw a distinction between the union leaders and the rank and file workers.
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The rank and file workers were concerned about preserving their jobs, and so
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is doug Ford. He was always in support of preserving jobs. But that's
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not what the union leaders wanted. The union leaders wanted to dictate government policy.
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And I'll reiterate that union leaders from the public service union do not dictate
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government policy. It is your elected representatives who make these determinations. And this
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was a promise made in twenty eighteen. The voters of the province of Ontario
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voted for this government not only once, but twice, and voted for this
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government majoritarily. And that's why this policy is enacted by the government promised by
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doug Ford. And now he's delivering on that promise. Is the election coming
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this fall or is it in the spring? Well, if you ask the
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leader of the opposition she seems to be asking for it. She keeps saying,
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bring it on, bring it on. So the leader of the opposition
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wants to have an election. We'll see if that comes to pass. Good
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answer. You didn't quite answer it, though, but I'll take that.
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It's fair. Eleven forty nine. Thank you so much, MPP. Anthony
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Leeardy Essex. Really appreciate your time and free stopping by the studio. Thank
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you so much. Thank you, very John, very much, John.
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It was a pleasure. Okay, at one last question, do you have
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a favorite brewery in the area. Oh gosh, you know, there's a
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couple of breweries in Kingsville that are excellent and I couldn't choose one over the
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other. So I recommend that your listeners go to the Grove and also to
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Kingsville Brewery, both in Kingsville awesome breweries. I support them. That's good.
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I'm gonna peg you down to answering one question one time about some things.
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I'll throw the hard ones right at the end there. Thanks again,
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Anthony le already very much appreciate your time today.