- Stavros Karlos
This story will drive you to drink....
Steven Sandor from Urban Affairs Edmonton has reported on the significant challenges being faced by the disitlling and beverage industries in Alberta.
Alberta's distilleries are part of a revolution in the provincial brewing and distilling industry. Despite the rapid growth in the number of distilleries, these are anything but get-rich-quick businesses, with many challenges that the industry faces as a whole, including industrial-level building requirements and taxes. Safety codes require distilleries to have blast proof walls that separate their production areas from their roughed-in bars, and the Alberta Craft Distillers Association (ACDA) is leading a charge for the province to simplify the regulatory and tax regime.
To address these challenges, some distilleries are branching out into ready-to-drink (RTD) "sparkling vodka" beverages, which bring cash flow up front, as they inject needed front-end money for distilleries. Yet even the RTD markets are taxed much higher than beer. If the Province of Alberta is interested in fostering the value-added agricultural producers in the beverage space we need rapid change or we will be crying in our whisky...