CAMRA BC Launches Save the Growler Campaign

CAMRA BC has launched a new campaign entitled "Save the Growler"  aimed at trying to stop the upcoming increased LDB mark-up on growler sales.

The announcement of the new campaign came literally minutes after I posted  about the subject based on information I had received from some brewery representatives and the LDB. CAMRA BC President, Rick Green wrote in a statement Thursday, Feb 28, "CAMRA BC is strongly opposed to the LDB's misguided interpretation of growlers and has begun to campaign for the rescinding of this tax increase."

 CAMRA Vancouver President Adam Chatburn put all the call for members to sign a petition and to spread the word that consumers must be vocal in rejecting what he called a "tax grab" and wrote an increased mark-up on growlers by the LDB is, "deliberately punishing smaller BC breweries and putting the brakes on the growth of the industry, by increasing the markup on Growler fills."

Green also pointed out that the classification of growlers as packaged product, which means the breweries pay a higher rate of mark-up by the government, is a "bureaucratic attempt to fit a square peg in a round hole," and that "the LDB only seems to be able to treat beer as either draught or packaged," ignoring the unique nature of the growler and its history.

The campaign may also put into the spotlight that the LDB and Provincial Government seem to have created a great amount of confusion as to how growlers should be mark-up and sales should be reported which you can read about here.

Let us hope that this attention put on this issue will help prompt an even larger review of how the LDB and Liquor Control and Licensing Branch are structured and operate.