Keep bringing the booze
The pandemic has spurred a lot of temporary policy innovations, but whatever happens on-demand alcohol should be here to stay.
This briefing is by Anil Wasif, who is a Senior Consultant at the Ontario Government and a co-founder of BacharLorai. He is currently completing his MPP at the Max Bell School of Public Policy where he serves as the President for the Public Policy Association of Graduate Students (PPAGS). Views are his own. Write us at newsletterthebell@gmail.com
This New Year’s Eve I got my leather jacket delivered to the door. Socially distanced from the stores and malls, I was up late the night before, checking Instagram pages of my go-to clothing stores. It wasn’t until 4:00 am that I remembered receiving an e-mail about H&M being on Insta-cart – an on-demand grocery delivery service. It was 4:05 by the time I picked what I wanted, chose a delivery time, and cashed out on my phone. The next morning, I woke up and answered the door.
Garb and groceries in hand, I sat with my roommates to plan the last supper of the year. Of course, half-way through our Americanos we realized the booze situation -- it was bad -- and there wasn’t time to run to the store. While frantically searching for a solution, we had forgotten the newest legislation in town: on-demand alcohol delivery at home. As my driver Paul picked up the liquor, it was UberEATS to the rescue, and the sharing economy at its finest; having me dressed, fed, and tiddly in no time.
The next morning, I wondered if this new normal is here to stay. It seemed that much like our lockdowns, on-demand hooch was a fast-tracked piece of temporary legislation to keep us sane; a move taken by most provinces at the onset of the pandemic to keep businesses alive. Fast forward to 2021, four provinces have agreed that the rules are here to stay while the rest figure out what to do next. This is a jurisdictional meshwork illustrating a Canadian disparity we are all too familiar with.
Historically, when it comes to the alcohol business, the federal government has sought paramountcy and our premiers have responded inconsistently. From the Macdonald and Mowat power struggle for import fees, to Premier Duplessis cancelling liquor licenses for supporters of Jehovah’s witnesses, alcohol has long been used as a bargaining chip to incentivize and control citizens, setting constitutional and legal precedents that continue to divide policy preferences across our great white north.
Fun fact: the first 30 cases concerning federal-provincial jurisdictional authority were related to the licensing, sale and prohibition of booze. Yes, each of the liquor cases were accompanied by small servings of the British North America Act, resulting in constitutional rulings that switched power from one party to another each time the feds and provinces fought tooth and nail. They brawled over legal provisions relating to commerce, social attitudes towards liquor, and political ambition for cash and patronage, to fulfil their quest for licensing fees, import duties and property rights. All of which have contributed to the hangover we call Canadian federalism.
A messy federalism is our favourite excuse when things aren’t clear, and the best of our lawyers and politicians still haven’t found the right vaccine for it. However, given the ad-hoc nature of policy making these days, it’s not bewildering to think that progress can be made by taking a citizens first approach to deciding who regulates what and when.
With storefronts bolted, hours restricted, and curfews in place, Canadians have welcomed the convenience of raising their glasses without bringing home the wrong brand of Corona. From reduced stockpiling to freeing up time to check their children’s online assignments, many households are content with getting their necessities delivered to their door, with businesses following suit. This has resulted in promises of a larger selection, price comparison and delivery within the hour - creating a customer value proposition that can no longer be ignored, while ensuring our favourite bars stay afloat.
If alcohol regulation had kept pace with market evolution, we might have prepared our establishments better for this slump. In 2019 Restaurants Canada reported that 49,600 Canadian businesses and 586,000 jobs were at stake if things didn’t take a turn for retail alcohol. They called for decisions on hot topics like whole-sale pricing, red-tape reduction and off-site consumption as pricing, lack of selection and outdated laws were incompatible with present-day practices for retail beer, wine and liquor. Alas, if our cross-provincial Alcoholic Beverages Working Group had acted on them then, our businesses would have been better prepared for the pandemic.
Nevertheless, thanks to temporary legislation allowing online delivery, bars and restaurants have carved out new business models to ensure that they aren’t shaken from the stir of COVID-19. From preparing cocktail kits and instructional packages to adding new offerings and pairings, fresh ideas stacked up fast as we got our first peek at the future of home delivered hospitality, finding convenience, sales, and frontline jobs, right on our palms. If the pandemic has shown us that the new normal is here to stay then we must remember that keeping the lights barely on won’t keep our bars open in the years to come.
Of course, we must ensure our safety first, since the potential health consequences of increased and easier access to alcohol are obvious and the realities of addiction and well-being cannot be taken lightly. To this end, advances in technology and machine learning can now ensure regulations for age and access are actively enforced. To effectively reduce potential harms, we can look towards states like Vermont that require ID scanning integration for delivery apps, or to countries like Australia where third-party consumption trends are combined with government data on death, injury and illnesses. Finally, while the new rules differ from province to province, they have recently acquired a common structure: sealed and ready to drink, purchased with food, under the permitted hours of sale, and delivered by a certified third or first party who records the sale. Unsurprisingly, these requirements are not too different from our in-person experiences and combined with the right practices, they can help the rest of us make the permanent leap.
The policy window has swung open, but a working group cannot be the solution again. The pandemic has altered shopping habits causing e-commerce penetration to climb ten fold and although a vaccinated world promises a return to bars and pubs, purchasing behaviours will take time to swing back. Therefore, the benefits presented by the shift in consumer behaviour need to be considered before recovery plans are finalized: Governments must let our local breweries enter the app delivery game to ensure their path to recovery, legislators must understand that union wages are more expensive than investing on third party delivery and policy makers must take care of independent contractors like Paul who saved our holidays last year. Our federal and provincial liquor policies have suffered from federalism for far too long. Canadians must raise the bar this time to end this hangover once and for all. (AW)
Related: “The Effect of Alcohol on the Canadian Constitution… Seriously,” by Morris Fish.
Read: “How Quebec’s “universal” health care system excludes its most vulnerable citizens,” by Pearl Eliadis.
Watch: The Edge of Democracy, a documentary about the fall of the Worker's Party and the rise of Bolsanaro in Brazil. Streaming on Netflix.
Meme: Even Hydro Quebec got in on the Bernie Sanders meme action
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The Bell is edited by Emily Nickerson, Mariel Aramburu, and Andrew Potter of the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. If you have any feedback or would like to contribute to this newsletter, please send an email to the editors at newsletterthebell@gmail.com