Global Courant 2023-05-22 13:24:24
The federal government announced a significant alcohol tax increase earlier this year, but reversed that commitment in response to backlash from some MPs, lobby groups and budget-conscious Canadian drinkers.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Chrystia Freeland’s budget kept the annual tax increase well below inflation – which will grow by just 2 percent this year – after a well-organized writing campaign convinced the government that the political ramifications of such an increase were not the relatively modest sales increase.
There was a similar backlash when the Canadian Center on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) recently issued new drinking guidelines claiming that no amount of alcohol is safe.
Requested the recommendation mockery from some saying that the health professionals behind the study are fun-averse teetotalers bent on making people unnecessarily worried about the risks of wine, beer and spirits. The government-funded data has still not been made public by Health Canada.
These incidents show how deeply ingrained alcohol is in Canadian life – and how unwilling the government is to crack down on drinking.
“You know, alcohol is the substance of choice for many policy makers and indeed for many of us. It has a sort of iconic cultural status. Politicians – they don’t want to do much about it,” said Dr. Tim Naimi, the director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria.
“It’s the leading cause of preventable death in Canada. It’s the government’s job to protect Canadians from the massive harm that alcohol causes. For some reason, they feel threatened by the facts.”
At least one politician wants to do something to curb consumption.
Quebec Senator Patrick Brazeau is a recovering alcoholic. His struggles with addiction are well documented.
Brazeau has been sober for three years now and now wants other Canadians to avoid the potentially life-changing effects of alcohol abuse.
“If you told me 10 years ago I was going to be sober and introduce a bill to label alcohol products, I would have told you you were crazy,” Brazeau told CBC News. “I was drinking way too much because I was hurting inside. I was trying to kill the pain.”
Senator Patrick Brazeau has introduced Bill S-254, which mandates health labels on all alcohol bottles. (Olivier Hyland/CBC News)
Brazeau said alcohol is the only known carcinogen that comes without warning labels.
He introduced Bill S-254which would mandate health labels on all alcohol bottles to warn consumers about the possibility of cancer.
Tobacco, vape and cannabis packaging is already plastered with dire warnings, he said, and alcohol should not be allowed to pass.
“There’s still a lot of taboo around alcohol — it’s so widely accepted in our society,” he said.
“But alcohol isn’t good for us and we need to stop pretending it is. It seems there aren’t too many people on Parliament Hill, elected officials, willing to take the bull by the horns and do something to do.” .”
According to data collected by Naimi’s institute, about 25 percent of Canadian drinkers have no idea that alcohol can cause seven deadly cancers.
Other jurisdictions have attempted to publicize these risks.
Dozens of countries around the worldincluding the US, already require health labels.
Labels for liquor, including a warning that alcohol can cause cancer, were placed on alcohol containers in a Yukon store by researchers. (Provided by Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research)
Investigators in Yukon placed warnings on liquor bottles in 2017.
The results were immediate: Sales fell 6.6 percent at a Whitehorse store as more consumers saw the prominently placed red labels. The project was scrapped under pressure from some industry groups.
A spokesperson for Spirits Canada, a lobby group representing the spirits industry, did not respond to a request for comment on Brazeau’s account. Beer Canada has said the industry can self-regulate.
A cash cow for governments
Governments depend on liquor sales to generate billions of dollars in revenue to fund public programs.
The federal and provincial governments earned an eye-popping $13.6 billion of alcohol sales in 2021-22, according to Statistics Canada.
Drinkers – approx 76 percent of all Canadians consume alcohol in any given year – are understandably reluctant to pay more for a product that, statistics showenjoy many regularly.
Some drinkers are also annoyed by the suggestion that moderate consumption is a problem, and defend alcohol as one of life’s little pleasures.
While much attention has been paid to the ongoing opioid epidemic – a tragic health event that has claimed the lives of thousands of Canadian drug users – publicly available data suggests a parallel crisis is underway.
Dr. Tim Naimi, the director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria, holds a can of corn. He says food packages contain nutritional information and alcohol bottles should be no different. (Michael McArthur/CBC News)
“The opioid epidemic is a huge public health problem, but we also have a very serious problem with alcohol,” Naimi said.
“It’s just that alcohol has been with us for a long time. We’ve basically learned to live with a high rate of problems over many, many years.”
Canada recorded 3,875 alcohol-related deaths in 2021, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada — a An increase of 21 percent compared to 2019 that was probably caused by a pandemic-related consumption spike.
Other Canadian research suggests that alcohol is even more deadly than those numbers suggest.
A peer-reviewed study published by the Public Health Agency of Canada suggests that alcohol consumption in Canada is associated with about 15,000 preventable deaths (including 7,000 cancer deaths) and 90,000 preventable hospital admissions per year.
(Preventable alcohol-related deaths are defined as alcohol-related cancers, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, accidental injuries, and violence.)
Those numbers closely follow what has been reported in the US, a country with a population nearly ten times that of Canada. The United States reports about 140,000 alcohol-related deaths every year.
While the government has rolled out a range of policies to curb opioid-related deaths — there are now more sites for safe consumption and naloxone kits are ubiquitous — relatively little is said about what can be done to reduce alcohol-related death and disease.
Data shows that about 20 percent of Canadians reported alcohol use that classified them as “heavy drinkers”, according to Statistics Canada.
The numbers are higher in Newfoundland and Labrador (27.7 percent) and Quebec (21.2 percent) and lower in Manitoba (16 percent) and Ontario (17.3 percent).
A pandemic-induced increase in alcohol-related deaths and illnesses has prompted health advocates to demand warning labels on alcohol bottles. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)
In the past decade, approximately 600,000 Canadians have become physically dependent on alcohol – a condition that can lead to injuries, violence, alcohol poisoning, risky sexual behavior, heart disease, stroke, liver disease, cancer and mental health problems.
While alcohol is a cash cow for all levels of government, researchers say its profit dwarfs other costs.
The provincial Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), the world’s largest alcohol importer, generated an annual dividend of approximately $2.4 billion in 2020-21.
I have 26 more years in the Senate, so I’m in it for the long haul.– Senator Patrick Brazeau
In comparison, the collective impact of alcohol consumption on health care, crime and productivity loss has been estimated $22.4 billion a year — a figure higher than the cost of tobacco use and the cost of all other psychoactive substances combined, including opioids and cannabis — according to research from Naimi’s institute in Victoria.
“This is a big ticket. Taxpayers are footing the bill for what amounts to … a subsidy on alcohol and heavy drinking in particular,” Naimi said.
A spokesperson for Federal Secretary of Mental Health and Addictions, Carolyn Bennett, said the government will continue to monitor Brazeau’s bill as it moves through parliament.
As for the allegation that it has not done enough to curb problem drinking, the spokesperson said “alcohol consumption is a serious and complex public health and safety issue.”
The government does not support the law, says Brazeau
The government is investing in programs to prevent alcohol consumption during pregnancy, funding substance use and addiction treatment programs, limiting the alcohol content in some drinks and funding research, the spokesman said.
Brazeau knows he’s in for a tough fight.
In a meeting with Bennett, the minister told Brazeau that the government is unlikely to support his bill, he said.
He is also routinely approached by lobbyists who intend to destroy the legislation, he added.
Brazeau said he’s getting some support from other senators to push the legislation to committee, but he’s not naive about the challenges ahead of him in tackling such a popular vice.
“I’ve got 26 years left in the Senate, so I’m in it for the long haul,” he said.
Referring back to his now infamous boxing match with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Brazeau said, “I’m not afraid of getting into a fight or getting knocked over.”
