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From 1998 to 2002, sales were flat, but from 2003 to 2007 consumption increased eight per cent. Direct government revenue increased four per cent. But the balance tipped the wrong way, according to the report.
"A comparison of a subset of direct alcohol-related costs and benefits indicates that health and enforcement costs exceeded government revenue from alcohol by approximately $61 million in 2002/2003," it said.
Statistics Canada reported $5,872,693,000 net income from the sale of alcoholic beverages through March 31, 2011, led by a 12.9 per cent jump in Ontario to nearly $2.15 billion. B.C.'s net income was almost $900 million, up 1.4 per cent. Alberta, which has the Exel-owned private distributor called Connect Logistics, was the only province to register a decline. Net income there fell 4.5 per cent to $683.5 million.
Overall sales were $20.3 billion nationally, including $2.953 billion in B.C., where $1.149 billion was from beer, $978.5 million from wine and $825.1 million from spirits. Beer sales were down 5.8 per cent, but wine up 3.4 per cent. Spirits rose only 0.5 per cent.
British Columbians spend more per capita on alcoholic beverages than Albertans but below the national average.
A 2002 study estimated direct and indirect health and social costs of alcohol at $14.5 billion -- which was 36.6 per cent of total substance abuse-related costs.
BC's high rate of alcoholism
The Canadian Community Health Survey in 2002 found B.C. had the second-highest prevalence of alcohol dependence at 3.6 per cent -- an estimated 122,400 people with serious drinking problems. They would fill B.C. Place Stadium twice, while the remaining 13,400 could fill most of Rogers Arena next door. The national average was 2.6 per cent and Saskatchewan had the highest at 4.1 per cent.
"Underage alcohol use is common in B.C., with 79 per cent of in-school youth reporting using alcohol at least once by age 17," the report said. "More troubling, risky alcohol use is also common among in-school youth; in 2003, 20 per cent of in-school drinkers (approximately 16 per cent of the overall youth population) reported binge drinking three or more days in the last month."
In 2002, the cost of alcohol-related crime, charges and jail sentences was $359.17 million in B.C. and $3.07 billion in Canada. In September 2010, the provincial government reformed drinking and driving laws to become the harshest in Canada. Immediate driving bans and fines were imposed for those found by police with 0.05 or more blood-alcohol content. The Justice Ministry claimed drinking and driving-related deaths fell 44 per cent since the law came to be, meaning 71 fewer deaths than the five-year average.
The government and healthcare partners launched an anti-binge drinking ad campaign in time for the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs with a poster inspired by the Guinness evolution ad, but charting the de-evolution of a binge drinker. The campaign ran despite the Canucks' early elimination. Binge drinking was pinpointed as a major cause of the 2011 Stanley Cup riot.
"Some policy measures are more effective than others, with taxation/pricing, control of physical access, drinking and driving countermeasures and treatment (particularly primary care) being in the first tier," the report said. "Educational strategies, restrictions on advertising and promotion, and community action plans are additional measures that show potential for the prevention and reduction of harms from drinking."
No business plan
Meanwhile, 2012 has been about the subtle increase in sales and revenue channels and a reform of distribution without any release of a business plan.
"It's a classic case of where government regulation is needed because it's not like any other commodity. From the public health point of view you want the high prices but you don't want the greater convenience," Stockwell said.
"Efficient private business is fantastic at getting us to spend as much as possible and consume as much alcohol as possible and they can raise their prices while they're doing it." ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
In Rush to Liquor Reforms, Health Debate Missing: Page 2 of 2
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Hakuin
46 weeks ago
Spare me
Slightly civilizing our barbaric liquor laws has nothing to do with any increase in health problems. For that look at the number of desperately unemployed and under-employed thanks to the corporate thugs that hijacked our province and nation.
zalm
46 weeks ago
Just back from Berlin
...among other places, and found a significant difference in how alcohol is treated there, compared to here.
Not only are young people general permitted to use alcohol, they seem to do it responsibly. Being in Prague for the World Cup semi-final between Germany and Italy, I found a crowd of about 5000 in front of the huge videotron set up in Jan Hus Square by the local car company with the smiling approval of the City Fathers. Most were drinking lightly, boisterous and exuberant but very well behaved, with none of the bottle or window smashing associated with most North American venues.
That's what makes some of the statements in Community Health Survey so disappointing.
"Underage alcohol use is common in B.C., with 79 per cent of in-school youth reporting using alcohol at least once by age 17," the report said."
I used alcohol, with my parents permitting me (and my sisters) a sip of wine at the holiday dinner table when we were fourteen or fifteen. My first beer at 17 was well earned after a day's hard labour with my father.
Our puritanical upbringing on lifestyle choices has virtually ensured a maudlin and violent response from people raised within its ambit who aren't permitted to discover responsibility and personal accountability for themselves. The only problem is, I don't know how to get out of this trap now. We've spent nearly 100 years getting to this stage, and we can't undo it simply by changing a law or rewriting the regulations.... the kids will simply go out and smash the lot.
unrealisticexpe...
46 weeks ago
Is it healthy...
Is it healthy to watch sports, sitting on your couch in your living room bob? Why don't we ban all televising and reporting on sports, since some sports fans are fat and unhealthy.
Watching sports is also bad for society as they make people focus on something that does not matter, and shifts their attention away from things that do matter such as local politics.
So make sure you get rid of watching and reporting on sports in your quest to make the world a government mandated "healthier place".
"Bob is a regular guest on The Sport Market on Team 1040 Radio in Vancouver."
Oh! so maybe you should stay the hell out of my private life and hobbies, and I will stay the hell out of yours! Liquor and especially beer, is already way too over priced in this province. A case of beer should cost the same as a loaf of good bread. And we should have the freedom to drink outside legally!
Our alcohol system is not repressive enough for you bob? HA!
Bailey
46 weeks ago
addiction and control
The problem of private distribution of this addictive and destructive product has caused great harm to society. The mafia came into being as a force for great evil on the profits from unregulated alcohol, and they used it to corrupt every public structure they could.
When prohibition ended they moved to drug distribution and just carried on.
They bribe police, legislators and politicians. They are the source of the wholesale corruption of our culture we are currently experiencing, both from the direct buy up of public servants and through the laundering of huge profits by buying up corporations and imposing their criminal culture on them.
People should not be prevented from having alcohol, but the trade must be made to pay for the damage it does, and the public control public ownership gives accomplishes that goal and also allows a measure of control.
Why must we continually remake the same mistakes as though we have no memories of the consequences?
Hakuin
46 weeks ago
The only mistake we continually make is failing to see
that the criminals, cops, legislators and politician are all on the same team.
gerard
46 weeks ago
Bring on more liquor reforms
The news peg for this story is pretty flimsy. You're hanging this health debate on changes which allow me to bring a decent bottle of wine to a restaurant instead of buying a crummy bottle of wine at an outrageous price. Will I see more alcoholism around me because my fellow diners aren't stuck with bottom-of-the-barrel Chilean merlot for $38? I'm completely unconvinced.
And what about transporting wine across provincial boundaries? These were archaic laws that were pointless, arbitrary and unenforceable. Prohibiting an Albertan visiting the Okanagan from taking home the bottles purchased while visiting a winery won’t prevent addiction, only hinder connoisseurship.
The privatization of the distribution system is a more complex matter. But what am I supposed to make of the almost random assortment of statistics provided. It's almost like you're trying to prove that the connection between addictions and liberalizing liquor policy is a tenuous one. It tells me that in 2002 "B.C. had the second-highest prevalence of alcohol dependence at 3.6 per cent...the national average was 2.6 per cent". Hmm...so our rate of dependence was greater than Alberta or Quebec, where alcohol is much more readily available? And despite hearing from Prof. Stockwell that "the more available we make alcohol, the more it's consumed", the story says that Alberta "was the only province to register a decline" in net income. Weird! Revenue dropping in free-market Alberta with its wider availability of alcohol. These facts don’t support a conclusion.
And then, "They would fill B.C. Place Stadium twice, while the remaining 13,400 could fill most of Rogers Arena next door." C'mon! Filling stadia, like laying things end-to-end until they reach the Moon, is truly desperate writing. And I'll apologize for the sarcasm if you apologize for providing such an unhelpful comparison. In a province with 4.5 million and a country with a population approaching 35 million, it's possible to find two stadiums-worth of almost anything. I'm none the wiser about the correlation between liquor laws and addictions though. Tell me why I should believe these figures would be different with different policy. Who’s done it right, with much lower levels of alcohol addiction than we see here (fundamentalist Islamic societies don't count). Do the countries with government stores and the most punitive liquor taxes also have extremely low addiction rates?
I think we're poorly served by the liquor system we've got now and welcome it being opened up more. I think our selection is not wide enough, prices are too high, and there are far too many people working in BCLC stores who simply don't know squat about the products they sell. That doesn't mean I defend the opaque process going on now with the distribution system, it means that I don't want defend our mediocre status quo.
And I think zalm's comments hit the nail on the head—healthy attitudes about alcohol are also about culture.
stanleymong
46 weeks ago
liquor
The Tyee pockets $300,000 from Big Labour to fund this kind of "journalism". The site and its backers make all kinds of shrill claims about being "real news" and throw in lots of chaff to disguise their true aims. The difference between The Tyee and The National Post with its right-wingers is that at least NP will tell you where the money comes from and what their agenda is. No such disclosure from these Dix lackeys, except in Tyee owner David Beers' whiny Wikipedia entry: http://bit.ly/MTve4H Let a thousand flowers bloom I say, but don't be fooled - The Tyee's purpose is to elect a BC NDP government that will start by rewarding its Big Labour chums and propagandists.
zalm
46 weeks ago
yeah...
...just another drive-by shooting from the Fraser Institute lackeys. Too bad they can't make a reasoned argument. Can't see anywhere in this whole article where labour of any sort benefits from any position taken in this whole article.
But obviously at least one Ayn Ranter can...