N.S. breweries react to looming federal alcohol tax hike

A jump in the federal tax on alcohol is looming.

Nine Locks Brewing Company in Dartmouth, N.S., is celebrating 10 years in business.

But the successful brewery may have to raise their prices when a federal alcohol tax hike takes effect on April 1.

Co-owner of Nine Locks, Danny Ohearn, calls the hike disappointing.

“Any tax hike in our industry is bad for the consumer. We can’t continue to raise our prices, but the government continues to raise their prices on us. So, it’s just not good for business overall,” he says.

The so-called “alcohol escalator tax” automatically increases each year by two per cent, and affects beer, wine and spirits.

According to industry estimates, its already cost taxpayers about 1.6 billion dollars since it went into effect in 2017.

“Some estimates have that the increase will cost about $41 million this year alone. So that’s a lot of money that’s been taken out from local businesses. And it’s going to mean less jobs…it’s not only bad for the consumers, but it’s going to be bad for the people working in these industries,’ says Devin Drover, Atlantic director with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“This is an automatic tax hike we’ve seen year after year. And it’s the same day that the MP’s are giving themselves a massive pay raise. So, we’re really concerned to see Canadians pay more at the checkout while politicians are giving themselves a big raise at the same time.”

Ohearn says the tax hike raises concerns about the health of the industry and says businesses in Nova Scotia are some of the hardest hit.

“Nova scotia has had several breweries close in the last number of months, and it is concerning,” he says.

Two Crows Brewing in Halifax was one of those breweries. They opened the same year as Nine Locks but shut down two weeks ago.

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