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moneysense.ca, 18/07/05
Privatize the LCBO
As a capitalist, I find it silly that the Government of Ontario runs corner liquor stores and claims that it is in the business of selling wine and spirits to serve the “public interest of Ontarians.”
An expert panel appointed by the government, recommended in a recent report that the LCBO be privatized. John Lacey, chair of the panel said: “Following a six month review, our Panel has come to the unanimous conclusion that the Ontario government should withdraw from ownership and operation of wholesale and retail beverage alcohol business, and instead create a regulated but competitive marketplace.”
You would think that the Panel has made very sensible suggestions, but, Greg Sorbara, the honourable finance minister, immediately rejected the main recommendation to sell the LCBO.
My question to the minister is: How exactly does ownership of the LCBO serve the public interest? Alcohol taxes would still flow into government coffers. Additional license fees could be generated from retail stores that want to sell alcohol. These businesses would have to pay taxes on their profits. Increased competition would lead to greater choice of products and decrease retail prices. Profits from the sale of the LCBO could be used to pay down provincial debt.
In the end, the biggest reason for selling the LCBO is philosophical: Why doesn’t the government also sell toothpaste and cigarettes in the public interest? And why stop there? They can then expand their merchandise to fresh produce and milk.
moneysense.ca, 18/07/05
Amen Bro,
Growing up in Quebec, hearing someone saying they were going to the Beer Store, I thought they were going to the Depanneur. When I found out you couldn’t buy Wine at the local corner store, I was completely floored.
–C8j
You would think that the provincial govt had better things to do than run retail stores. Some reports even indicate that the LCBO is not as profitable as it seems (they include the taxes that are owed to the govt anyway as a “dividend”). There is a huge demand now for income products, so it may be an ideal time to sell the LCBO.
lcbo should be run by government as long as the part of the money goes into the communitty, we dont need a raise in alc sales so a few people can make money, and more people being to drink more. But the money the government makes from running the lcbo, most likely just goes in their pockets, we need that money or a large part of the money, to be brought back into the communites. Pros and Cons to Both.
This is just a nonsense to keep it under government control and claim that is serves “public interest of Ontarians”.
Taxes can be collected, age limits can be enforced, consumption can be regulated much better without LCBO and like.
and who is BeerStore.ca? another monopoly inside monopoly? it supposed to promote Canadian? well, there is nothing Canadian left in BeerStore.ca – only the domain name…
All this is the result of the merger of “corporate machine” with corrupt-bureaucratic governmental institutions.
LCBO should be privatized. Beer Store should be banned. Public deserves to have a choice and simply try real beers! Even if it is imported.
The problem I have with privatizing the LCBO would be that I simply don’t trust private companies, the government might not be perfect but what if Bechtel bought the LCBO (If they did I’d just live without wine, there is no way I can morally or ethically purchase products from that company after what they did in Bolivia). Like Lewis Black said (roughly paraphrased) “the government might not be perfect but do you think Enron would do any better”? I don’t trust the government either (mostly because they’re spineless and do whatever America tells them to) but I certainly don’t trust an entity whose job it is to, above *everything* else, make as much money as physically possible in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of risk.
@anon So then you could shop at another liquor store, just like you could shop at another grocery store. Heck, you’d be able to buy booze at those grocery stores.
@Christopher I can already buy liquor at the grocery store
Privatize the damn thing or at least allow for competition. Was at a LCBO tonight and they had only one cashier at one of five bays. The employees there were okay but the managers are hard to reason with. Simply appalled when I hear about what some of these guys are making.
Ahahaha… this guy said it like it is.