Local health board to discuss province’s secretive alcohol rule changes

A report is going forward to the Middlesex-London Board of Health to discuss concerns with the Ontario government`s plan to modernize the alcohol market in the province.

“Including increasing the number of retail outlets, looking at increasing the hours of sale and considering relaxing alcohol pricing rules,” said Linda Stobo from the Middlesex-London Health Unit.

While the report lacks specifics of what the government is planning to do, Premier Doug Ford has said on many occasions this was a priority for his government.

“We need to have convenience for the consumer. We're going to fulfill that promise,” Ford said at a media availability in May of this year.

According to the report heading to Thursday’s meeting, having an increase to accessible alcohol comes with an increase in both social and health concerns.

“We have a culture of drinking in Ontario, and that same culture of drinking exists within our Middlesex-London community. Alcohol is not a benign substance. It comes with harms both health harms and social harms,” Stobo said.

The head of the Ontario Convenience Stores Association said the relaxing of rules will be beneficial to rural Ontario.

“The average margin in a LCO, which is an agency store that are in convenience and small grocery stores around rural Ontario, is about 10 per cent,” David Bryans told CTV News London.

Meanwhile, Stobo said increased access is only going to cost Ontario more in the long run.

“In 2020, alcohol costs Ontario taxpayers $7.1 billion in both health care and indirect costs. And from a tax generate in a revenue generation perspective, it only produced $5 billion. So every year, alcohol actually creates an almost $2 billion deficit for the province,” she explained.

The report will be heard during Thursday night`s Board of Health meeting. What the board does, or can do from there however remains unclear.