What is it about Ontario and beer? Why can’t this province manage to carry out a few straightforward, long-overdue reforms without tying itself in knots at every opportunity?

The latest twist in this tale is the revelation that supermarkets will be required to abide by strict quotas on how much beer they can sell once new rules on beer retailing come into effect by the end of year.

The Star’s Robert Benzie reported last week that a forthcoming agreement between the government and the brewing industry will decree that Ontario’s supermarkets will together be allowed to sell only 46 million six-packs a year by 2018. That works out to 279 six-packs per day for each of the 450 supermarkets allowed to sell suds.

It sounds like quite a bit. But the real question that should be asked is: why should the government be in the position of setting annual beer quotas for any retailer? It’s beer, for pete’s sake. Let consumers decide where they want to buy, and let the chips fall where they may.

But of course that would be way too simple. The annual supermarket beer quota seems designed to do just one thing: protect the sales of the Beer Store, which for 88 years has held a virtual monopoly on beer retailing in Ontario. This privately owned consortium of foreign-owned brewers has fought against loosening its strangle-hold on the market at every step, and now stands to benefit from an arbitrary ceiling on the amount the supermarkets will be allowed to sell.

The result may be empty beer fridges if supermarkets sell their quota before the end of the year. Of course, thirsty shoppers will always be able to go down to the Beer Store – which may be precisely the idea.

The Wynne government has shown courage by opening up beer sales, even cautiously, and preparing to loosen the selling of wine as well. But it’s not easy, as entrenched interests throw up obstacles along the way. An annual “beer quota” would be a step backwards, and another sign of Ontario’s inability to kick the habit of unnecessary red tape around sales of alcohol. For us, it falls flat.