Alcoholic beverages in Canada

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This article covers various topics involving alcoholic beverages in Canada.

1 Comparative consumption
2 Distribution
- 2.1 History
3 Legal issues
4 Notes
5 See also

[edit] Comparative consumption

Statistics Canada carries out surveys of alcoholic consumption in Canada, divided by province^[1] . Average values for the country are given in the bottom row of the table.

	Wine	Rank	Beer	Rank	Spirits	Rank	Total	Rank↓
Yukon	18.3	1	145.1	1	13.8	1	12.7	1
Northwest Territories	8.1	7	85.1	5	10.8	2	9.2	2
Alberta	13.9	4	89.8	4	7.6	9	8.6	3
Newfoundland & Labrador	6.5	11	93.3	3	7.3	10	8.0	4
British Columbia	14.5	3	76.6	12	9.0	7	7.8	5
Ontario	11.8	5	84.3	6	8.8	8	7.8	6
Québec	17.4	2	93.9	2	4.1	12	7.8	7
Prince Edward Island	7.4	10	78.9	9	9.7	3	7.5	8
Nova Scotia	8.0	8	79.5	8	9.1	5	7.5	9
Manitoba	8.0	9	76.8	10	9.4	4	7.4	10
Saskatchewan	5.0	12	76.8	11	9.1	6	7.0	11
New Brunswick	8.4	6	79.8	7	6.8	11	6.7	12
Nunavut	Data unavailable
Canada	13.1		85.6		7.5		7.8
Values for wine, beer and spirits consumption are given in litres per person over 15, per annum. The total is expressed in litres of absolute alcohol.

[edit] Distribution

Under the Constitution of Canada, responsibility for enacting laws and regulations regarding the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages in Canada is the sole responsibility of the ten provinces. Canada's three territories have also been granted similar autonomy over these matters under the provisions of federal legislation.

This means that there is a separate agency (or agencies) in each province responsible for regulating the sale and consumption of and, in all but one case, selling alcoholic beverages. Alberta is currently the only jurisdiction to have completely privatized its retail liquor industry (the AGLC maintains a monopoly over the wholesale distribution of wine, distilled spirits and imported beer - the distribution operation itself being contracted out to a private operator). Most of the other jurisdictions have maintained a total or near-total control over the sale of hard liquor while allowing limited privatization of beer and wine sales.

[edit] History

Following enactment of the British North America Act, the federal and provincial governments disputed which level of government had the authority to issue liquor licences. Due to the leadership of Ontario Premier Oliver Mowat, the British Privy Council ruled in favor of the provinces with regards to this and other jurisdictional disputes. As a result, it was generally left up to the provinces to enact Prohibition when the temperance movement was at its strongest in the early 20th century. When Prohibition failed to curb the liquor trade, each of the provinces chose to replace it with tight government control of the liquor trade that persists to this day in most provinces.

[edit] Legal issues

In Canada, there is no federally defined age for legal alcohol purchase or consumption, and unlike what has happened in the United States, calls to establish a national drinking age in Canada are generally ignored. Canadian provincial governments protec their jurisdictions more fiercely than their counterparts in the U.S. states, and would likely fight any attempt by the federal Parliament to do what the U.S. Congress successfully did (i.e. withhold transfer payments to coerce a province to adopt a policy unrelated to the transfer payments). Therefore, each province and territory is free to set its own drinking age. The legal age for purchase is: