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Photo by Michael Peake/Postmedia/File

No word of a lie, there are people here in Ontario who will tell you it’s impossible: Private independent businesses would simply refuse to do it, these people say. Arguments like “uh, have you been to Quebec?” bounce off them like superballs.

One of former premier Kathleen Wynne’s less likely legacies was a roughly 35 per cent increase in the number of retail alcohol outlets. Her government authorized a total of 450 supermarkets to sell some combination of beer, wine and cider. They can’t all sell all three, naturally. In Ontario, there is no liberalization without complexification. But it was something.

Unlike in Quebec, those supermarkets do not refund the bottle deposits they collect. For refunds, urban Ontarians must visit The Beer Store, which is the modern incarnation of a post-prohibition government monopoly operated by Canada’s (now-foreign-owned) big brewers. The Beer Store only sells beer — not cider, not wine — but is nevertheless the only place to refund your cider, wine and beer containers.

(Rural Ontarians can visit one of several hundred “agency stores” — private businesses, including convenience stores, authorized by the Liquor Control Board to sell beer, wine and spirits. They also refund empties. For no good reason, this model has always been considered utterly anathema to urban areas.)

In Ontario, there is no liberalization without complexification

The situation has always been strange, but at least explicable: Thanks to their lavish political donations, Labatt’s and Molson’s CEOs held more sway in the premier’s office over the years than most cabinet ministers. When Ontario expanded its own bottle-refund system beyond beer, it was natural to hand the brewers the contract.