In August, Lift Canada’s Spirits launched a campaign with the goal of bringing the excise distillers pay in line with domestic craft beer production, as well as small U.S. distilleries.
“Reducing the excise to on par with the U.S. would mean more job creation as well as numerous other economic benefits for the communities surrounding the now more than 200 distilleries across Canada, including our own right here in the Okanagan,” says Tyler Dyck, Lift Canada’s Spirits spokesperson, President of the Craft Distillers Guild of B.C., and CEO of Okanagan Spirits Craft Distilleries. “The U.S. recently reduced their excise tax on spirits and the economic gains all parts of their economy experienced as a result are too large to ignore. We pay seven times more in excise than they do, so you can see how that is pretty stifling on small distillers here at home.”
Lift Canada’s Spirits anticipates that setting the excise tax to a less punitive level for small distillers would allow them to re-invest, leading to both higher local employment and larger demand for local agricultural products used to make their spirits.
Visit LiftCDNSpirits.ca to sign the petition, to get more information or to get involved in the campaign.