The Ford government is pledging more changes to alcohol access in Ontario — announcing plans on Monday to allow international airports to serve booze 24-hours a day, and to remove limits on how much beer, wine and spirits can be brought across provincial or territorial borders for personal use.

Those two promises are among a sweeping list of changes, packaged as the ‘Better for People, Smarter for Business Act’ — the government’s first piece of legislation introduced during the fall session. It proposes changes as varied as integrating multiple vehicle safety and emissions inspections into one check, to ending the requirement for barbers and hairdressers in Ontario to collect their clients’ names and contact information. The Bill also promises to ease restrictions on bringing dogs onto restaurant patios, and inside certain breweries in the province.

The Ford government has put forward multiple alcohol-related initiatives since taking office last year, from Ford’s touted “buck-a-beer” challenge to legalizing tailgate parties. Ontario’s Alcohol and Gaming Commission began accepting applications for tailgate event permits at sporting events in early May, through amendments to a regulation under the Liquor Licence Act.

Meanwhile, though, a separate piece of legislation that would terminate an agreement with the Beer Store appears to have stalled. House leader Paul Calandra told reporters last week that the legislation wasn’t on his “priority list right now,” when outlining his government’s focus for the fall session. The legislation in question attempted to sidestep expensive penalties the province could face while pursuing one of Ford’s campaign promises — bringing beer and wine to corner stores.

The new pitch on Monday to allow 24-hour alcohol service in airport bars and restaurants — provided the establishments are beyond airport security — would be a seven hour increase from the current 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. allowance. The government argued in materials distributed to reporters that the move would bring Ontario “in line” with rules elsewhere in Canada, and globally. They presented the removal of interprovincial limits on personal alcohol as an easing of “unnecessary” barriers to trade, and claimed that the change to personal limits on beer, wine and spirits would “promote job creation and economic growth.”

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce recommended that airports be able to sell alcohol 24-hours a day in post-security areas, and that inter-provincial alcohol trade barriers should be removed, in a report released earlier this year.

Prabmeet Sarkaria, Ontario’s Red Tape Reduction Minister, was quizzed by reporters about the new legislation on Monday afternoon — and asked whether he felt his government’s focus on alcohol-related changes was outsized. Sarkaria responded that they were merely bringing regulations “up to date,” and matching the rules currently in place in other provinces.

“We met with the airport authority who spoke to this being a need, and I think it just speaks to the general process of our government trying to be open for business,” he said. “We don’t want our consumers, whether it’s people or businesses, to be held up or held back by regulations … I think regulations are meant to improve the lives of people,” he told reporters.

Opposing politicians recognized some merit in the proposal. Interim Liberal leader John Fraser, who lives in Ottawa, which borders on Quebec via Gatineau, said the removal of interprovincial personal limits seemed “reasonable.” “It’s like removing a trade barrier, in a sense, so it’s an opportunity for increased competition. That’s a good thing … there shouldn’t be personal limits. We need to have freer trade inside Canada.”

But Fraser was less certain about the government’s move towards 24-hour served alcohol access inside airports.

“I’ve never had anybody, in a long time in politics, ever raise that issue with me,” he reflected.

Both Fraser and NDP MPP Catherine Fife, who also spoke with iPolitics about the new legislation, pointed to what they perceive to be a fixation within Ford’s government on alcohol related changes. “I’m so astounded by the government’s obsession with alcohol, that has continued a year later,” Fraser said.

“It was mentioned 50 times in the budget and this is a continuation of that,” he claimed in a short phone call. (By iPolitics’ count, the word ‘alcohol’ specifically appears 35 times in Ontario’s 2019 Budget document, plus 12 mentions of ‘beer’, 7 mentions of ‘wine’ and two mentions of ‘spirits’.)

“This government seems incapable of writing a piece of legislation that doesn’t involve expanding alcohol access,” Fife added. While the Waterloo MPP lauded the idea of improving interprovincial trade, she also cast doubt on the government’s understanding of how their changes could impact the health of Ontarians. “No one wants regulations just for regulations sake, but the fact of the matter is we don’t trust this government to make sure one’s health and safety is not impacted,” she said.

Fraser hopes the government has changed tune on the Beer Store agreement file, in the wake of Calandra’s comments about their priorities last week. “What I’m hoping is that they are going to come to their senses. If they’re going to liberate the sales of alcohol, do it in a way that’s planned and timely and is not going to cost people, cost the government a lot of money,” he said.

“I would think that would be the prudent thing to do.”