Alberta
The latest legacy of Canada’s wildfire smoke? Wisconsin’s new beer-and-burger pairing
WASHINGTON — Another fragrant, hazy phenomenon is turning heads in the United States — only this time, beer fans in Canada will happily take the blame.
It’s one of the newest IPA offerings from G-Five Brewing Company in Beloit, a southern Wisconsin community of about 36,500 people an hour’s drive southwest of Milwaukee, a city synonymous with suds.
“Blame Canada” — what else would they call it? — is an easy-drinking session India pale ale inspired by the smoke-filled skies that were plaguing much of the U.S. Midwest and northeastern states earlier in the summer.
It was the product of a collaboration with fellow Wisconsin brewers Rocky Reef, a partnership that happened to come together in mid-June when the wildfire smoke was at its worst, said Tim Goers, G-Five’s head brewer.
“When you have a business that is cyclical like that, you don’t want your patrons to be outside because of air quality, so it does hurt business a little bit,” Goers said.
Naturally, that’s when the conversation turned to 1999’s “South Park: The Movie” and that now-anthemic song-and-dance number, “Blame Canada” — a riff on the show’s tongue-in-cheek fondness for making fun of Canadians.
“We were going to hold on to it for a week, but it was just dumb luck timing that the wildfire haze came back,” he said.
“We got to the point where when we kegged this beer up, it was pretty awful outside. We were, like, ‘It’s too coincidental — we can’t hold on to this beer.’ So we released it.”
That’s when it caught on like the proverbial wildfire.
Out of 12 available options on tap, “it’s our number 3 best-seller right now, and it hasn’t even had a full month of sales.”
Even the label on the can is one many Canadians could get behind — a red silhouette of the familiar Toronto skyline in flames, with a smoky mountain range and white Maple Leaf emblem in the background.
If the beer alone isn’t enough, patio patrons can pair it with G-Five’s latest Burger of the Week, “Canadian Wildfire,” a ground ribeye burger made with spicy maple syrup, the requisite back bacon, jalapenos and pepper jack cheese.
“If you have an IPA or a hoppier beer — ours aren’t, like, crazy hoppy — that will help cut some of the spice of the burger. So they actually ended up pairing really well together.”
Much of the U.S. is now getting a reprieve from the smoke, although there are still air quality issues in northern states including Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota and parts of northern Wisconsin, Environmental Protection Agency data shows.
Instead, most Americans will be contending this week with a fearsome heat wave that’s already punishing much of the southern U.S., with record-setting highs that are expected to reach 49 C in spots.
And Goers said he’s well aware that wildfire season on both sides of the border is only just getting started.
“It’s a tongue-in-cheek, fun thing for us as a brewery, but as a nation and for people that are going through it, it’s pretty awful,” he said.
“It’s kind of sad to me — I have a lot of empathy (and) sympathy for what the heck is going on … it’s the 14th of July, and typically the dry season hasn’t even started.”
G-Five used to source some of its malt barley from Maker’s Malt, a specialty producer near Saskatoon that caters specifically to the craft beer industry. But between the COVID-19 pandemic, shipping issues and recent droughts, the brewery has been forced to switch to a supplier closer to home.
“It hurts to see,” he said. “Now, does it hurt us brewing beer? No. But, you know, that’s not all my life is surrounded by.”
In the meantime, Goers said while he’s hoping the wildfires don’t flare up as badly as they did last month, G-Five will keep the “Blame Canada” recipe handy and break it out again if circumstances change.
“I’m not the biggest ‘South Park’ connoisseur — I might have watched a couple (episodes) in high school just so I could have something to talk about with my friends,” Goers said.
But if a Canadian craft brewer wanted to bat the ball back with a tart seasonal offering called “Team America: World Police,” for instance, he’d be all in.
“That would be hilarious.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 15, 2023.
James McCarten, The Canadian Press
From the Fraser Institute
By Spencer Gudewill and Tegan Hill
Last November, Premier Danielle Smith announced that her government will give up to $1.8 billion in subsidies to Dow Chemicals, which plans to expand a petrochemical project northeast of Edmonton. In other words, $1.8 billion in corporate welfare.
And this is just one example of corporate welfare paid for by Albertans.
According to a recent study published by the Fraser Institute, from 2007 to 2021, the latest year of available data, the Alberta government spent $31.0 billion (inflation-adjusted) on subsidies (a.k.a. corporate welfare) to select firms and businesses, purportedly to help Albertans. And this number excludes other forms of government handouts such as loan guarantees, direct investment and regulatory or tax privileges for particular firms and industries. So the total cost of corporate welfare in Alberta is likely much higher.
Why should Albertans care?
First off, there’s little evidence that corporate welfare generates widespread economic growth or jobs. In fact, evidence suggests the contrary—that subsidies result in a net loss to the economy by shifting resources to less productive sectors or locations (what economists call the “substitution effect”) and/or by keeping businesses alive that are otherwise economically unviable (i.e. “zombie companies”). This misallocation of resources leads to a less efficient, less productive and less prosperous Alberta.
And there are other costs to corporate welfare.
For example, between 2007 and 2019 (the latest year of pre-COVID data), every year on average the Alberta government spent 35 cents (out of every dollar of business income tax revenue it collected) on corporate welfare. Given that workers bear the burden of more than half of any business income tax indirectly through lower wages, if the government reduced business income taxes rather than spend money on corporate welfare, workers could benefit.
Moreover, Premier Smith failed in last month’s provincial budget to provide promised personal income tax relief and create a lower tax bracket for incomes below $60,000 to provide $760 in annual savings for Albertans (on average). But in 2019, after adjusting for inflation, the Alberta government spent $2.4 billion on corporate welfare—equivalent to $1,034 per tax filer. Clearly, instead of subsidizing select businesses, the Smith government could have kept its promise to lower personal income taxes.
Finally, there’s the Heritage Fund, which the Alberta government created almost 50 years ago to save a share of the province’s resource wealth for the future.
In her 2024 budget, Premier Smith earmarked $2.0 billion for the Heritage Fund this fiscal year—almost the exact amount spent on corporate welfare each year (on average) between 2007 and 2019. Put another way, the Alberta government could save twice as much in the Heritage Fund in 2024/25 if it ended corporate welfare, which would help Premier Smith keep her promise to build up the Heritage Fund to between $250 billion and $400 billion by 2050.
By eliminating corporate welfare, the Smith government can create fiscal room to reduce personal and business income taxes, or save more in the Heritage Fund. Any of these options will benefit Albertans far more than wasteful billion-dollar subsidies to favoured firms.
Authors:
Alberta
Official statement from Premier Danielle Smith and Energy Minister Brian Jean on the start-up of the Trans Mountain Pipeline
“The Numbers Favour Our Side”
Making Alberta a geothermal energy leader
Canadian interest in electric vehicles falls for second year in a row: survey
Three Calgary massage parlours linked to human trafficking investigation
Alberta’s vision for passenger rail
Honda deal latest episode of corporate welfare in Ontario
The EV ‘Bloodbath’ Arrives Early
-
Canadian Energy Centre2 days agoNorth America LNG project cost competitiveness
-
Business2 days agoWEF panelist suggests COVID response accustomed people to the idea of CBDCs
-
conflict2 days agoColumbia on Lockdown After pro-Palestinian Protesters Take Over Building, Hold Janitors Hostage
-
International1 day agoNYPD storms protest-occupied Columbia building, several arrested
-
Addictions1 day agoBritish Columbia to re-criminalize hard drug use in public after massive policy failure
-
Addictions9 hours agoCity of Toronto asks Trudeau gov’t to decriminalize hard drugs despite policy’s failure in BC
-
Environment1 day agoJournalism Misrepresent Climate Science
-
Business13 hours agoWhen politicians gamble, taxpayers lose