REGINA - With threatened tariffs from President Donald Trump set to be imposed next week on March 4, Opposition Leader Carla Beck is calling for US liquor to be pulled from Saskatchewan liquor stores.
Beck spoke at the local business District Brewing in Regina on Friday, where she spoke again about how devastating tariffs would be on Saskatchewan businesses and workers. She called for action from the province on the issue.
“If these tariffs were to come into effect on Tuesday, the Sask Party government should pull U.S. beer, wine, and liquor from SLGA shelves immediately,” said Beck.
“I'm also urging the proud people of this great province to support our world-class producers, brewers, distillers, instead of buying American. We make the best stuff right here in Saskatchewan.”
Beck's call to remove U.S. beer, wine and liquor from Saskatchewan stores is in line with similar government efforts in other provinces to remove U.S. liquor from stores as a retaliatory measure to Trump tariffs. The one difference is that in Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority has sold off all of the remaining publicly run liquor stores, leaving liquor store sales in private hands.
As well, Beck's call to people to buy locally-made liquor products is in line with the NDP's broader "shop local, shop Saskatchewan" campaign that they launched on Wednesday at an announcement in Saskatoon.
District Brewing marketing coordinator Hayden McPherson welcomed the focus on Saskatchewan brewing.
“We think it's awesome to have this kind of spotlight put on local products and supporting Saskatchewan-made items and putting that as a main focus, and we really make the best products here,” McPherson said. “We use Canadian grains. We use Canadian ingredients.”
As for the impact tariffs could impact on their business, such as the price of aluminum for their beer cans, McPherson said they have been adjusting by turning to Canadian suppliers.
“Mainly the things that we're switching from the U.S. right now is a lot of our packaging,” said McPherson.
“When it comes to things like aluminum or different things that come in the process, some boxes, things like that, we're finding a lot more of Canadian suppliers that are giving us a lot better rates, especially as things are coming in. And those are some of those transitions that we're making right now.”
He welcomes the current focus on buying local and buying Canadian.
“Of course, yeah. I think everybody's kind of seen the spike in patriotism from the hockey game to everything else going on in the world, and people are really wanting to support local. And so that's been great for us and a lot of great local businesses as well have been highlighting these smaller businesses that are home-grown, home-made, home-owned.“
