Groups begin lobbying N.S. government over potential booze sale changes
With the provincial government launching consultation on whether to expand sales points for alcohol in Nova Scotia, interested parties are not waiting for a phone call.
Organizations on both sides of the issue have started issuing news releases and open letters to Finance Minister John Lohr, whose department is overseeing the process.
Lohr announced last week that Infuse Public Relations and Crestview Strategy will collectively manage the public opinion polling of 1,500 random people and stakeholder engagement with 194 groups. The contract for the work is worth $300,000.
A news release this week from the Atlantic division of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said 77 per cent of small businesses in Nova Scotia support allowing convenience stores and grocery stores to sell alcohol.
"This moment is the government's chance to support local retailers at a time when over six in 10 are experiencing lower demand, and provide much-needed shelf space to local producers," Duncan Robertson, the federation's director of legislative affairs, said in the release.
The CFIB's recommendations include allowing the sale of beverages that do not exceed alcohol by volume of 7.1 per cent in convenience and grocery stores — similar to steps taken in Ontario — and opening those rules to all small businesses, not just large retailers.
Nova Scotia already permits alcohol to be sold in some private wine and specialty stores, in on-site stores at breweries and wineries, and farmers' markets.
Lohr also received an open letter this week from a group of 14 doctors who specialize in addiction medicine, urging the government not to expand alcohol sales because it would increase consumption and "worsen individual and societal harms."
"Every day we care for patients and families suffering from alcohol use disorder and medical complications of alcohol use," the letter said.
"Alcohol causes more than 500 deaths, 5,000 hospital admissions, and 35,000 emergency department visits in Nova Scotia each year, and creates more health care and social costs to our province than any other substance."
The doctors went on to say that revenue earned through taxation on alcohol sales does not compensate for society-wide costs of health harms, violence and driving accidents attributable to alcohol. They wrote that alcohol is already widely available in Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation retail and agency stores.
"It is crucial that the government keeps control of alcohol distribution to minimize further public costs and health harms," they said.
Finance Department officials said 194 groups are included in stakeholder engagement so far. That includes 126 craft breweries, wineries and distillers, along with another 11 groups or agencies also in favour of opening things up, such as the Retail Council of Canada.
Jim Cormier, the group's Atlantic director of government relations, said members have been looking at this issue particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic.
"They've been looking at any way to try and get more people to get away from online shopping, using their smartphones to shop, and get them to come out to go into bricks-and-mortar stores," he said in an interview.
Cormier said there can be extended benefits for the local economy by getting people into retail stores where it's possible to cross-promote Nova Scotia craft beer, wine and spirits with other products, such as cheese, berries and glassware.
"Obviously it would be more than just Nova Scotia products, but that's the pitch we're making," he said.
Council members are looking for things to be as open as possible so there are no winners or losers, said Cormier.
"If you're in a rural community and there happens to be a hardware store and they think that they could make a case that they could sell beer and do so in a responsible manner and meet all the rules and regulations, why shouldn't they be allowed to at least apply to do that?"
Dr. Kirstin Weerdenburg, a pediatric emergency physician and a trauma team leader at the IWK Health Centre, said it is vital that the government not make any changes without first speaking to the people responsible for caring for those most impacted by alcohol.
During her 10 years working in Nova Scotia since moving from Ontario where she also practised medicine, Weerdenburg said she's seen an increase in the number of young people presenting to the emergency department with intoxication.
Data needs to be reviewed under the current regulatory regime to understand what's happening before access is expanded, she said.
"I do start to get more concerned nowadays, if kids have more access, what their futures will look like."
Weerdenburg is also a member of the Nova Scotia Alcohol Policy Coalition, which recently wrote to the government outlining its concerns. The group is one of several dozen representing interests related to health care, intimate partner violence prevention, addictions and marginalized communities slated to be consulted.
Although the stakeholder list does not include Nova Scotia Health, the IWK Health Centre or Public Health, a Finance Department spokesperson said the three agencies would be consulted as part of an internal engagement process for government departments.
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