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Rather than seize the opportunity to finally fix a flawed beer policy, Finance Minister Joe Ceci has decided instead that it’s full speed ahead on his government’s quixotic campaign to defend it.

But as the NDP struggles to sustain a legal argument in favour of what are essentially tariffs on out-of-province beer, they must now also confront some awkward news from the very industry they purport to be defending.

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In late July, a panel found that the Alberta government’s policy conflicts with our free trade obligations under the Agreement on Internal Trade. And it wasn’t the first such finding, either.

Previously, the NDP government had changed the markup rates so that the lowest rates only applied to small brewers in Alberta as well as our New West Partnership cohorts B.C. and Saskatchewan. After that arrangement was found to be in violation, the Alberta government applied the highest markup rate across the board, and then compensated Alberta’s small brewers in the form of volume-based subsidies.