Ford government must rethink plan to force independent grocery stores to accept empty alcohol containers

On Oct. 31 — Halloween — all grocery stores in Ontario will ostensibly have the right to sell beer, wine and cider products.
But the strings that come along with that right have left grocers in the province wondering if this was the Ontario government’s idea of a trick-or-treat program.
Ontario’s independent grocers, who represent about 59 per cent of the brick-and-mortar retail grocery stores in the province, initially applauded the announcement in 2023 that the government intended to open up the sale of alcohol products to all grocery stores. This was a welcome change from the system established by the previous Liberal government who, by limiting the number of licensed retailers who could sell beer and wine, created winners and losers on the retail grocery landscape. That should not be the role of government.
However, when ending that system, the current Conservative government is now forcing all grocery stores that opt to sell alcohol to also accept dirty bottles and cans into their stores, creating more winners and losers. It’s tantamount to a bad hangover from the previous government’s incongruous approach.
Where, exactly, does this government suggest deposit returns should be dropped off in a grocery store? By the meat, produce or bakery sections? Or perhaps by the front entrance so that the smell of stale beer wafting through the store can enhance the shopping experience for Ontario consumers. These dirty cans and bottles will also be coming into the store often broken and accompanied by cigarette butts, discarded needles and insects. As such, the risk of cross-contamination in a food environment, particularly in a smaller store, is more pronounced.
As well, where will an independent grocer operating on margins of two per cent — half that of a retail grocery chain — find the space to sort and store these empties? What products in the store do the bureaucrats in the Ontario government recommend be taken out to make room for these bottles and cans? How will that independent make up for the revenue loss from that forfeited space? How will that small business pay for the costs of storing and sorting these soiled cans and bottles with their margins further reduced? Has the government also looked at this within the context of the existing Blue Box program, which has seen costs more than triple in the last two years?
This past summer, the Ontario government rightly squashed the concept of grocers having to take back dirty, non-alcoholic containers. How then can the same government now foist that concept on grocers when it’s a dirty, alcoholic container?
The alcohol changes announced in May contained a stark illustration that the Ontario government had not grasped that the challenges and realities for smaller, family-owned independent grocers are significantly different than those faced by monolithic retail chains. In revising provincial Alcohol and Gaming Commission licensing fees, the Ford government aligned the existing fees for the grocery chains and independents to the same level, reducing fees for the chains, but tripling them for the independents. Independent grocers welcomed Finance Minister Bethlenfalvy reversing that miscue, but it was disconcerting that Main Street and Bay Street grocers had been lumped together in the first place.
Last year, the Competition Bureau of Canada released its long-awaited study into the retail grocery industry. One of the key recommendations coming out of that exhaustive study, was that all governments — federal, provincial and territorial — need to do more to encourage the growth of Canada’s independent grocers. How can the Ontario government reconcile its imposition of a costly and impractical deposit return system on its own independent grocers, with the findings and recommendations of that report?
Independent grocers have conveyed to the government our desire to work together to find and enhance solutions to recycling. Looking at community depots like those that exist in other jurisdictions, or returning empties to the LCBO — which does not sell fresh food — are but two options that come to mind.
The decision of the Ontario government to expand where Beer, Wine and Cider can be sold should be a win-win. A win for retailers, for Ontario craft breweries and wineries  — and a win for consumers wanting more convenience.
But the low number of independent grocers seeking beer and wine licences — combined with current sellers indicating they will surrender their licences in 2026 when the exemption to operate in proximity to a Beer Store ends — attests to the fact that the province needs to adjust their alcohol modernization plan.
In a refreshing departure from the political norm, Premier Ford has said, to his credit, that when his government recognizes something may not be the right decision, changes are made. Such a change is needed now. It is hard to imagine that this is an issue the Ontario government intended to create.