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William Watson: Why are we so terrible at liquor, beer and pot sales? Because it’s 2018!

Nothing drives a Canadian free-marketer to despair quicker than this country’s approach to the production and selling of beer, wine, liquor and now marijuana. And no, “Canadian free-marketer” is not yet a contradiction in terms, though we’re clearly an endangered species.

Does no one in Canada believe in competition? On these files, and you could add milk, chicken, cheese, eggs and even maple syrup, all our political parties are about control — a little more control, a little less control, but control. Couldn’t we have just one party that says that so long as they pay their taxes and comply with basic health and hygiene requirements, Canadians are free to produce, sell, transport across provincial lines, export, import and consume whatever amounts and kinds of these products they choose to? Why? Because it’s 2018!

It’s not 1917, when state control of everything began its catastrophically unsuccessful 74-year experiment in Russia, nor 1920, when the United States began an equally unsuccessful if less murderous 13-year prohibition on the sale of alcohol. We’re a mature democracy made up of mature, responsible, well-educated individuals. Canadian adults should be free to make production and consumption decisions all on their own without permission from their Daddy State.

Beer, including Ontario craft beers, are shown at a grocery store in Ottawa on Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018.

Though it is 2018, the premier of our biggest province thinks it’s his job to set the price of beer. Like some Saudi sultan of suds, he’s offering free shelf space in his liquor stores and advertising in his tipple flyers to companies complying with his request. And he’s reducing the legislated minimum price for beer from $1.25 to $1. Good on him for at least being on the side of consumers, but why do we have a minimum price for beer in the first place? I lived in France for a year and a wide selection of quite tolerable wine was available at very low prices in grocery and many other stores and yet the French seemed to function perfectly well — albeit they spend more time than we do volubly debating philosophy. Are Ontarians less trustworthy than the French in making good decisions for themselves?

It’s true that in this year of 2018 our own October revolution will legalize the sale of marijuana, which is a step toward freedom of choice. But the crazy way we’re going about it shows what control freaks we Canadians have become. Summoning wisdom from some unidentified vasty deep, the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority has decided Saskatoon will have exactly seven marijuana outlets. Not one more, not one less. There will be 51 for the province as a whole, with most towns having exactly one. (So much for local retail competition!)

Applicants for licences had to fill out a long form — one compared it to instructions for a 1980s stereo system — and pay $1,000. A grand ain’t what it used to be: 1,500 people applied. Those whose forms satisfied regulators proceeded to a lottery. Lotteries are a sensible way to eliminate lobbying but only if there’s a good reason to limit the number of licences, and there isn’t.

The National’s ecumenically empathetic Nick Purdon recently did a story on one of Saskatoon’s lucky seven, 23-year-old Cierra Sieben-Chuback, a new graduate from business school. She seems bright and charming but her main connection with marijuana to date has been using it to cope with the rheumatoid arthritis she was diagnosed with two years ago. Her father runs an auto body shop so his business experience will be helpful to her — even if car improvements and consumer narcotics aren’t very similar. But is this any way to establish a market?

In this file photo taken on December 05, 2016 showing an employee with medicinal marijuana plants in the flowering room at Tweed INC. in Smith Falls, Ontario.

I’ve been a lifetime consumer of Big Macs. Suppose in a not unprecedented fit of lunacy the government of Quebec decided to limit the number of fast-food restaurants in Montreal and award operating licences by lottery. I’m a lifetime academic but I do have relatives in business who could help me with the basics. It might produce a fun news story but would it really make sense for me to win one of the precious licences? Or for there to be licences in the first place or a limit on their number?

No, no and no! Make suppliers comply with health and safety rules for their product but then get out of the way. Let anyone who wants to try to make a go of selling marijuana (165 applied in Saskatoon). The market will decide who’s good at it, who’s not and how many outlets are needed. If you’re biased against “the market,” understand that in this case it simply means Saskatooners.

The liquor and gaming commission says it will reassess over time and issue extra licences if needed. No, it won’t! The history of taxi licensing says current licence-holders, including Ms. Sieben-Chuback, will lobby fiercely and ultimately successfully against any dilution in the value of their licence.

It’s 2018. We know how these things work. Why aren’t we being smarter?

Source: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/william-watson-why-are-we-so-terrible-at-liquor-beer-and-pot-sales-because-its-2018


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