Buck-a-beer in Ontario is a bust.

But the real question in the post-Labour Day long weekend aftermath of its launch isn’t really why the province’s 272 brewers didn’t jump at the chance to take a bath on the product they make, but rather why the hell three of them did.

The answer seems to be desperation, drugs, and kissing Doug Ford’s ass.

On August 6, the premier announced that he would lower the price floor to allow brewers to sell their beer for one dollar a unit. The reaction to the announcement was swift and critical.

This is mainly because the announcement didn’t actually amount to any real policy changes that would allow brewers more access to the market. Instead, the Premier had simply told brewers they could now sell their beer for less.

Before the announcement, brewers were free to sell beer for as low as $1.25 a unit, only the number of brewers selling beer at the bare minimum was exactly zero. And so Ford’s “announcement” was akin to telling Porsche they were now free to sell Carreras in Ontario for $400 if they wanted to.

Uh, thanks?

It is essentially impossible to make a quality beer for $1, thanks to pesky things like the actual cost of ingredients, the rising costs of aluminum cans, Ontario’s taxes and the cost of distribution, just to name a few. There’s no way to make beer for a dollar without selling it at a loss.

Still, a few breweries got on board. The first, Barley Days Brewery in Prince Edward County, hosted Premier Ford’s non-announcement. It was a bit puzzling to see Barley Days at the forefront of a large, public announcement that held no real benefit to breweries. The other surprise was that Barley Days is still open.

The small brewery known for making beer that it would be kind to call decent, had been largely off the radar in recent years. Yet suddenly, people across the province were uttering the company’s name. I’ve written it three times in this article alone.

And so it seems Barley’s enthusiasm for a dollar beer long weekend was something of a kick at the beer can for a little PR fix.

Barley’s did not return NOW’s request for comment, but the company’s manager told Global News in the days following the announcement that, “We were just trying to find something that was going to spark curiosity in our brewery again and I thought this was a great opportunity.”

Then Cool Brewery in Ford’s backyard in Etobicoke got in on the action and that’s where things start to get interesting.

While most beer lovers may not have not have heard of Cool, it’s likely you’ve had beer made at their brewery. That’s because, in addition to a handful of their own brands, the company is mostly in the business of making beer for small brewing companies who don’t have the space, facilities, or wherewithal to actually make beer. It’s a business known as contract brewing and one that has been pretty lucrative for Cool. In 2013 they added 20 per cent more capacity to keep up with demand.

It seems odd that they would bother trying to make a one dollar version of any of their beers, unless of course you consider the other line of business they appear to be quietly entering: cannabis.

Neighbours of Cool Brewery were recently invited to attend an open house to discuss Cool’s plans to process cannabis oil in their brewing facility.

I did some digging and discovered a Public Hearing Notice inviting Ward 6 residents to weigh in on an application for a minor variance “to permit a medical marihuana production facility” at Cool’s Evans Avenue address.

These plans clearly include secure cannabis storage. A planning consultant’s letter from Cool Brewery states that “The owner is seeking an Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR) license for a Medical Marijuana Production Facility (MMPF), which would be located on the second floor at the northwest corner of the building as indicated on the attached survey.”

When I inquired about Cool’s plans the company issued a statement that the brewery was not interested “in growing (or selling) medical marijuana.”

But a company interested in getting involved in Canada’s soon-to-be legal cannabis industry might do well to keep on Premier Ford’s good side, a theory that seems to hold even more weight when one considers that Cool actually announced their involvement in the buck-a-beer campaign on the very same day Ontario announced it will allow recreational pot to be sold in retail stores while the province will handle online sales.

President’s Choice was the next to join the buck-a-beer fiasco when they announced on August 21 that they would sell bottles of their low-alcohol PC 2.5, Cerveza, Dry, Light, Genuine Lager and Honey Red beer for a limited time. A company spokesperson says “the response was huge – far exceeding our expectations and something that we will explore doing again.”

President’s Choice is, of course, owned by Loblaw Companies Ltd., and when you consider that the folks who run Loblaw’s myriad grocery stores were behind the decision to make a splashy display of supporting the Ontario government – and to quickly withdraw from the buck-a-beer program less than a week later – it’s not really that hard to figure out why they might get involved.

Ford has publicly mused about shaking up the province’s liquor laws to allow beer and wine in grocery stores. And Loblaw Companies Limited, by virtue of its ownership of No Frills, The Real Canadian Superstore, Fortinos, Valu-Mart, Freshmart, Independent Grocers, Zehrs, and more, actually has a large vested interest in the shape of Ontario’s retail liquor licence landscape.

Of the roughly 350 grocery stores who have been licenced to sell alcohol in Ontario, Loblaw Companies Limited owns 150 of them by my count. That number means that, since December 15, 2015, which is when the previous Liberal government announced beer sales in grocery stores, Loblaw has quietly become the third largest liquor retailer in Ontario, behind only the LCBO and The Beer Store.

Loblaw has also been planting the seeds to get in on the green rush with legal marijuana. In 2013, it acquired Canada’s largest pharmacy chain, Shoppers Drug Mart, for $12.4 billion. After applying for a license to dispense medical marijuana in 2016, Shoppers has recently signed supply deals with licensed marijuana producers Aurora, Aphria, MedReleaf and Tilray.

And so, how could any brewery actually think buck-a-beer was a good idea? They probably didn’t. But it sure was in their best interests to pretend they did.

Ben Johnson writes about drinking, politics, and the places where the two intertwine at Ben’s Beer Blog.

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