Crown Royal no longer on rocks in Ontario as deal struck

Crown Royal will remain on Ontario shelves after that province reached a deal with the company behind the Manitoba-made whisky and cancelled plans for a long-threatened boycott.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced Friday that his government had reached a deal with Crown Royal’s U.K.-based parent company, Diageo, averting him from pulling the product from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. He had threatened to do so for months, after Diageo announced the closure of a bottling plant in Amherstburg, Ont.

The threat placed Ford at odds with Premier Wab Kinew, who repeatedly voiced concern over how it might impact jobs at the Gimli factory where Crown Royal is mashed, distilled and aged.

“I want to thank Premier Ford for keeping the Crown Royal on the shelves. This is a good day for workers in Gimli, and for Canadian jobs generally,” Kinew told reporters following the announcement.

“Premier Ford is always standing up for people in his province, I’m always standing up for people in mine, and it’s nice to see that we could find a path forward together here.”

Diageo committed to nearly $23 million in new investments in Ontario, Ford said in a news release.

“These investments will help keep Ontario workers on the job, strengthen provincial supply chains and support the local community in Amherstburg and the surrounding area,” he said.

Kinew, who has repeatedly touted his friendship with Ford, launched a publicity campaign to convince the Ontario premier to reconsider his boycott. That included a news conference outside the Gimli factory in January, and a social media video in which Kinew poked fun at Ford.

The video referenced a September news conference in which Ford emptied a whisky bottle onto the ground in protest. Kinew spliced in footage of him pretending to catch the spilled whisky in a glass.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa… don’t waste that — that’s the good stuff,” he said, smiling and raising the glass to the camera.

In addition to Manitoba, Diageo has a bottling and distillation facility in Quebec. In a January news release, the company announced it would shift some operations to the U.S., building a manufacturing and warehousing facility in Montgomery, Ala.

Ford had warned that Diageo would move all Canadian production to the U.S., but the company has denied that.

Kinew said he has had conversations with Diageo, and believes the company is committed to staying in Manitoba.

Manitoba Hydro is slated to build a new, 20-kilometre transmission line from its Silver Station near Fraserwood to the Gimli plant. The development will allow Diageo to replace its natural gas boilers with electric systems.

“There’s a big transmission line coming in, new investments in the warehouse, so that all signals a long-term presence in Manitoba and good jobs for people in Gimli and the region,” Kinew said.

— with files from Carol Sanders

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

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