Craft beer makers in Nova Scotia are urging the government to even the playing field.
The industry is paying .50 cents a litre back to the province for all beer sold ouside of the NSLC.
That’s more than double what the wineries and distilleries are paying.
“Wineries and distilleries pay five percent of wholesale. Which would be equivalent for us to about 18 or 20 cents a litre,” said Emily Tipton, president of The Craft Brewers Association of Nova Scotia.
Tipton said it was about a year ago that the craft distilleries rates were reduced.
“We’ve been asking the Department of Finance to give us the same treatment since then,” said Tipton.
Diana Whalen was finance minister when the distillers were given a reduction in taxes.
Then, Whalen went to Justice and Randy Delorey became Nova Scotia’s finance minister.
“Now we’re dealing with a new finance minister. I know he’s a busy man and this is now the second minister that we’ve been dealing with on this file. I guess these things take time. We’re pretty small compared to some of these big league negotiations I know they’re dealing with right now. But, we have been asking for more than a year for equivalent treatment and they just haven’t gotten around to us,” said Tipton.
The craft beer industry is growing at an extraordinary rate in Nova Scotia. Consumer demand is driving the growth rate of an average of 25 percent annually. People are particularly interest in locally produced craft beer.
“What this high rate of tax does is limit our options to reinvest in our business and ability to grow at a rate that meets the demand for our product.”
“We’re all very small and struggling to keep up. We’re not able to invest what we’d like to the way things are now.”
Tipton said they’ve laid the ground work and provided the government with a lot of information and justification for a reduction.
“We understand that the NSLC is supportive of what we’re asking for and we’re just waiting for some action. I’ve been waiting for a few months now to have a meeting with the minister of finance about this issue and I’m hopeful that will come soon.”
