MIL OSI Translation. Canadian French to English –
Source: Government of Canada – in French
March 9, 2024 – Toronto, Ontario
The spoken version is authentic
I would first like to acknowledge that we are gathered on the traditional territories of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Chippewas, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat.
I’m very happy to be here today with Aaron Prothro (owner of Mascot Brewery) and his team and my wonderful colleagues from across the Greater Toronto Area.
Canada’s small craft breweries are the best in the world. Mascot, a Black-owned craft brewery, is an integral part of the cultural and social landscape of this extraordinary city.
Aaron told us today that part of his mission is to build community – and that’s what you can see here.
The success of your business, the quality of your great beers, and your commitment to empowering Black entrepreneurs is truly inspiring. Thank you, Aaron, for the important work you do. I know it’s difficult. You took a big risk – and you take big risks every day. In addition to building a community for all of us, you provide good jobs for nearly 40 people.
As Minister of Finance, I also know that Canada’s small craft breweries, like Mascot, play a very important role in the Canadian economy.
In fact, according to Statistics Canada, breweries employed some 23,000 Canadians in 2022. In addition, according to the Conference Board of Canada, the beer industry as a whole supports nearly 150,000 jobs in Canada. This is no small thing, and it shows how important this industry is to our economy.
I also want to salute Canadian farmers. As Aaron explained the brewing process to us, he told us about purchasing malt barley, one of the key ingredients in his beers. I remember growing up that barley was one of my father’s crops. So I want to thank all the Canadian farmers who grew the malting barley that Aaron buys to make the great beers he serves here and sells throughout the Greater Toronto Area.
In recent years, the cost of key beer ingredients, such as hops and malting barley, has increased due to global inflation, creating real challenges for Canadian breweries.
Our local breweries, craft breweries, are particularly vulnerable to increasing these costs because they do not benefit from the economies of scale that large industrial breweries have access to. Our government is aware of this. That’s why last year we placed a cap of two percent per year, for one year, on the annual excise tax adjustment on all alcohol products.
I have an announcement to make to you today on this subject. I am very pleased to announce that our government will extend this two percent cap on the excise tax for two years.
And I have one more piece of news to tell you, and this one especially concerns Aaron and the other talented, entrepreneurial-minded craft brewers across the country like him. It is with great pleasure that I announce that our government will support craft breweries by reducing their excise tax for two years. Specifically, we will reduce beer excise duty rates by 50% for the first 15,000 hectoliters of beer brewed in Canada.
So the average craft brewery will benefit from a tax break of almost $87,000 in 2024-2025.
This is important support, and I am happy to provide it to you.
Small businesses and craft breweries like this are truly at the heart of the Canadian economy. Once again, thank you to all the employees of the Mascot Brewery for all their work.
Our government works tirelessly to meet the needs of Canadians from coast to coast. Our support for small craft breweries is just one example of what we are accomplishing with our economic plan – a plan that is working. And for that, I think we can all raise a glass. Health!
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.
