Post 64--Competition between Government and Tax-paying Citizens

  

I had a few other subjects in mind for the next posts, but the issue of competition between Canadian governments and their citizens popped up again, unannounced and unexpectedly. The last post, you may remember, dealt with competition between the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), a so-called “crown corporation” with special ties to the Federal Government (FG), and private broadcasters. The CBC receives hefty subsidies from the FG but also advertises like any other medium house, often against their private competitors who support them through their taxes. I have expressed my deep displeasure with that arrangement. 

Today this same topic intrudes again as I read yesterday’s VS today. This time the issue is between BC Government Liquor Stores (GLS) and private wine stores. Please understand, I am hardly a wine bibber and so this does not personally apply much to me, except that every individual in any given jurisdiction is affected when major economic shifts occur. There is always a ripple effect. Furthermore, sometimes I wonder whether we all would not be better off without all that alcohol stuff, given the misery and suffering it creates form day to day. Yes, I do take a drink very sporadically and sometimes actually enjoy it, but wines, hardly.

A major shift has occurred in the alcohol world of BC. Whereas formerly, liquor was sold only in GLS-es and bars, with the exception of wine that was also for sale in private wine outlets, recently, the gates have been opened with the result that liquor is now available in all kinds of places. That spells serious competition for the wine sellers, but it’s private vs private. That’s the nature of our economy. Not a problem to me, though such major adjustments spell serious challenges to which those sellers have to adjust. Again, that’s our economy for you. Change is as common as stability. You have to learn to cope. It’s the name of the game. Nothing guaranteed.               

The problem is that the GLS has increased its business hours to include Sundays and statutory holidays.  Patrick Greenfield, owner of a wine store complains that his Sunday sales are down considerably. On Good Friday 2015 they were down by 40% for him. Another owner, John Clerides, said his Sunday sales have fallen 15-20 percent since FGS opened Sundays. Greenfield complained, “It’s hard to compete with the government, which seems to have a ‘bottomless chequebook,’ noting the millions of dollars being spent to add refrigeration facilities to government stores.”  He continues, “It’s hard when the government is (both) your competitor and your supplier,” without even talking of its control over legal power. It’s not a “level playing field,” for GLS doesn’t “face the same consequences.” For one thing, not every store needs to show a profit, for it can be carried by the entire network. 

Clerides has applied to the Government—the very department that makes the rules and from which he gets his supplies—for “the right to sell beer and spirits in his store so he can better compete against government stores,”but that request was turned down.  It has, he surmises, “obviously” fallen on deaf ears. Why is that not surprising?

You see the mess such an arrangement creates?  Someone please explain to me why the Government is into liquor sales. Has anyone ever defined the role of a government, especially in a “free” Western society? I checked the internet about the history of this mess, but perhaps lacked the patience to pursue it long enough, for I did not find any reference to this history. If it were important enough to me, I might even go to the Public Library for literature on the subject. As it is, I am left guessing. One of my guesses is that it is one of these brilliant NDP achievements with its union friends blocking any move towards a freer market.  Well, yes, they have a good thing going for themselves, what with government salary and job security as good as guaranteed. I am almost jealous! 

But what of its citizen tax payers?  It is unconscionable that these entrepreneurs are forced to purchase their supplies from their competitor, who has virtually unlimited power over the market and part of whose income comes from those very taxes. No government should be allowed to compete with its citizens and no citizen should be saddled with such a competitor-master. I am not anti-government and certainly not anarchist. I'm just a plain old conservative with a Christian twist. Note the small "C," though I am also (still) a large "C-er."

The same argument can also be applied to private schools vs public schools, but that’s a much more complicated issue that I’ve touched upon before and, no doubt, will again in the future. 

I think I will visit my neighbourhood wine store and buy a bottle just to show my support. It would be the first time in my life, not of buying wine but of buying in a private wine shop. 

[With thanks to Bruce Constantineau for his VS article “More choice is a bad thing for private liquor stores” (Aug 15, 2015).]