Business
Federal taxes hurting B.C. wineries and craft brewers
From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
By Carson Binda
Trudeau has a habit of saying his government is working to make life more affordable, but tax hikes do just the opposite.
Federal tax hikes are hitting a crucial industry in British Columbia at the worst possible time.
The alcohol industry across B.C. has had a tough couple months. Between forest fires, droughts and cold snaps, wine-growers and craft brewers will have a harder time turning a profit this year. And Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is about to make things even worse.
In April, Trudeau is hiking federal taxes on beer, wine and spirits by almost five per cent. Taxes already account for about half the price you pay for alcoholic beverages. That means every time you buy a bottle of wine or a six-pack of your favourite craft beer, you’re also buying one for the taxman.
To add insult to injury, the tax hike is automatic, meaning our elected MPs won’t vote on the increased taxes on wine and other alcoholic beverages.
Back in 2017, the Trudeau government introduced a tax escalator on alcoholic beverages. The escalator means the taxes on beer, wine, ciders and spirits goes up automatically every year, without a vote in Parliament.
Regardless of your views on alcohol, it’s wrong for the government to hike taxes without letting the democratic process weigh in.
Trudeau shouldn’t be jacking up taxes on a struggling industry, especially not without letting our elected representatives voice their concerns by actually voting on the hike.
Wine growing is an important industry in B.C., with more than 12,000 people across every region of B.C. employed. It creates more than $3.75 billion for the provincial economy. Almost 1.2 million tourists visit B.C. wineries every year. There are 341 separate wineries in our province alone, with hundreds more wineries across the country.
While taxes on B.C. VQA wines are less than the taxes on non-VQA wines, VQA wines only make up around 19 per cent of sales. Local non-VQA wines in B.C. are the most frequent type of wine sold in the province.
Craft beer is also a big driver of the local economy. There are more than 200 craft breweries in B.C. alone, which made almost $230 million in revenue in 2020. Around 4,500 people are employed by craft breweries in B.C. And more than 95 per cent of wineries, breweries, cideries and distillers in B.C. are small businesses.
A majority of the 1,100 craft breweries in Canada are in rural areas where they are important employers. It’s wrong for the small businesses in rural communities to be picking up the bill for big-spending politicians in Ottawa.
Small businesses selling alcoholic beverages are also going to be paying the tab for Trudeau’s tax binge. Think about all the pubs, bars and restaurants that make ends meet by selling beverages to thirsty British Columbians.
Instead of hitting the gems of our provincial economy with automatic tax hikes, we should be supporting those small mom-and-pop brewers and pubs to ensure they can keep employing thousands of British Columbians and pumping billions into our economy.
Credit where credit is due: Some federal politicians like MP Tracy Gray in Kelowna have been vocal in their opposition to the escalator tax. But that’s falling on deaf ears in the prime minister’s office.
Trudeau has a habit of saying his government is working to make life more affordable, but tax hikes do just the opposite.
If Trudeau really wanted to help the little guy get ahead, he wouldn’t be hiking taxes on small businesses and families.
Carson Binda is the B.C. Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
By Ryan Thorpe
“It would have been cheaper for each member of the prime minister’s delegation to go to the Keg, order a prime rib steak, a Caesar salad, baked garlic shrimp and a bottle of pinot noir for every meal.”
Break out the DVD player and aerate a few bottles of the 2015 Riesling, because Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has an important work trip.
The food bill for Trudeau’s four-day trip to Italy and Switzerland this June cost more than $71,000, including at least $43,000 spent on airplane food alone, according to the records.
That works out to an average meal cost of $145. Add it up and the total food bill averaged more than $1,700 per member of the Canadian delegation.
To put that in context: the average Canadian family of four spends about $1,400 on food per month, according to Canada’s Food Price Report.
“The per person food bill for Trudeau and his entourage on this trip was more than the average Canadian family spends on groceries in a month,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “It would have been cheaper for each member of the prime minister’s delegation to go to the Keg, order a prime rib steak, a Caesar salad, baked garlic shrimp and a bottle of pinot noir for every meal.”
The total taxpayer tab for the four-day trip came to nearly $1 million, according to access-to-information records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation from the Department of National Defence and the Privy Council Office.
The cost of the trip could be even higher, as “some accommodations were covered by Global Affairs Canada,” according to the records.
Trudeau travelled to Apulia, Italy, and Lucerne, Switzerland, between June 13 and 16, 2024, to attend a G7 Summit and a Summit on Peace in Ukraine.
All told, the trip cost Canadian taxpayers at least $918,000, according to the records.
Prior to take-off, government bureaucrats purchased $812 worth of junk food from a grocery store – including Red Bull, pop (Pepsi, Coke, Sprite), chocolate bars (Kit Kats, Twix’s, Reece’s Pieces) and candy (Swedish Berries, Fuzzy Peaches).
Government bureaucrats also swung by a record store and purchased $102 worth of DVDs for the flight, according to the records.
The purchases included the first season of Wednesday, a supernatural coming-of-age TV show based on the Addams Family, Madame Web, a superhero film, the sci-fi thriller Chronicle, and Witness, a 1995 crime movie starring Harrison Ford.
During the flights, the passengers were served meals that would be at home on the menu of a fine dining restaurant, alongside four types of wine – a 2021 Chardonnay, a 2015 Riesling, a 2018 Baco Noir and a 2021 Merlot.
Meals included veal piccata Milanese with potato, buttered green peas and broccoli, and lamb ribs with whole grain mustard sauce, rice pilaf and sauteed spinach.
Other dinner options included cheese ravioli with rose sauce, roasted red peppers and parmesan cheese, grilled chicken with lemon caper sauce, mashed potatoes and glazed carrots, and beef stroganoff with buttered noodles and snow peas.
For dessert, passengers chose between raspberry cheesecake coulis, chocolate and pistachio cake and Swiss chocolate cake.
“I like Sydney Sweeney as much as the next guy, but maybe Trudeau could do some actual work or download a movie on Netflix the next time he flies, instead of billing taxpayers for a DVD copy of Madame Web,” Terrazzano said. “While he’s at it, maybe Trudeau could forgo the Swiss chocolate cake while Canadians back home are lining up at food banks in record numbers.”
Trudeau travelled with an entourage ranging from 36 to 41 people during the four-day trip, including two coordinators of digital and creative content, a videographer, and a photographer, according to the records.
This is far from the first time a short trip for Trudeau meant a big bill for taxpayers.
Trudeau’s six-day trip to the Indo-Pacific region in September 2023 included more than $223,000 spent on airplane food, according to records obtained by the CTF.
That entire trip came with a taxpayer tab of nearly $2 million.
In 2022, Stewart Wheeler, who was Canada’s chief of protocol at the time, told a Parliamentary committee the government would bring down the cost of international travel.
“We recognize that the system that we had in place was not delivering the kind of oversight and control that Canadian taxpayers deserve,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler’s comments came after Governor General Mary Simon spent $100,000 on inflight catering during a nine-day trip to the Middle East in March 2022.
“The government promised to bring the cost of international travel down, but taxpayers are still getting stuck with outrageous bills,” Terrazzano said. “The government needs to figure out how to fly overseas without spending more on food in a few days than four families spend on groceries in an entire year.”
From StosselTV
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