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Big Rock Brewery is feeling blindsided by an announcement of production markups from the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission.

Changes in tax rates introduced in Thursday’s provincial budget, mean mid-size breweries — those producing between 2 million and 20 million litres annually — like Big Rock Brewery and Minhas Brewery will be asked to pay an additional 11 cents on each litre they produce.

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Big Rock, which produced about 16.8 million litres in 2014, had paid a markup of 40 cents per litre. The Calgary company said Friday the higher than expected increase will cost them an additional $2.1 million in taxes.

“This tax hike strategy was not expected and has hit us hard. The government is asking for three times our prior year’s income in additional taxes,” said Susanne Fox, communications manager at Big Rock Brewery. “As a result, we are reviewing all of our operational costs.”

Big Rock’s 2014 financial results show the brewery reported net income of $624,000 for the year ended Dec. 30. With the newly announced markup on production — the province’s take of liquor revenue — it expects to pay a total of $10.5 million in annual tax going forward.