At a time when impaired driving continues to plague our society, isn’t it odd for a government to make it easier for people to access alcohol?
Last week marked the wider availability of ready-to-drink beverages in convenience stores across the province.
Previously, only licensed distributors were granted the right to sell beer and alcohol outside of the LCBO and The Beer Store.
But the Ford government seemed to think it was a smart move to open the market up further to include convenience stores and grocery stores.
Response by grocery stores has been tepid – larger operations will have the responsibility of collecting empties – but corner stores will not have to bear that burden.
As a result, there are thousands of new options to grab a six pack around the province. Here in Chatham-Kent, dozens of locations are now selling beer and coolers.
That includes the two EnRoute locations on Highway 401 in Tilbury. Top up, pop open a “traveller” and get on Canada’s busiest highway…
It also includes several spots quite close to schools.
One questions the motivation of making booze more accessible.
On one hand, there seem to be cannabis shops on most every corner (a decision of proliferation that also lands in the lap of the provincial government). So why not expand access to alcoholic beverages?
More consumption most certainly increases the dangers of impaired driving and increased health risks associated with heavy, chronic alcohol consumption. However, the more booze sold, the more sin tax that comes into provincial coffers, right?
Give the people what they want and to hell with the consequences? Trust them to all be responsible?
It’s a little too much to ask, to be honest.
And if this was done by Doug Ford looking around and seeing how other provinces operate, that’s not necessarily smart. If politicians start looking around, what if they look south of our border and think greater proliferation of firearms is a good thing? Mass shootings are an all-too-regular occurrence in the U.S. There is no place for that here.
Then again, maybe Ford has adopted a mindset akin to members of the NRA in the U.S.: guns don’t kill people; people kill people. So in Ontario, alcohol doesn’t kill people; impaired drivers kill people.
Lord, we hope we’re wrong.
