American booze serving a purpose

Some of the U.S. booze pulled off Liquor Mart shelves last winter was offered to help people struggling with alcohol addiction.

Premier Wab Kinew said Friday that some of the American-made products purchased by Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries valued at $3.4 million, which have been in storage since last February, were offered to managed alcohol programs during last summer’s wildfire evacuations.

The programs, which are administered under medical supervision, assist people experiencing alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

The Crown corporation offered product to Keewatinohk Inniniw Minoayawin, an organization that supports health and wellness services for 23 First Nations in northern Manitoba.

A managed alcohol program — providing regularly timed “maintenance” drinks to chronic alcoholics through the day to prevent binge consumption — is among the supports KIM delivers in the North.

Its mandate is to focus on equitable care and address systemic racism, among other things.

MLL became aware of the program as a result of the agency’s Liquor Mart purchases during the massive evacuation effort during the summer.

“We offered to make liquor available to them at our distribution centre, but were not taken up on the offer,” a Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries spokesperson said in an email late Friday.

KIM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kinew shared that information Friday when he was asked if Manitoba would consider selling the bought-and-paid-for U.S. liquor that has been in storage since last winter and donating the profits to food banks, as Nova Scotia announced it was doing earlier this week.

“We’ll be open to being flexible with this… it probably makes sense for us to consider,” Kinew said Friday.

Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries 2024-25 annual report said that it provided funding to Main Street Project for a managed alcohol pilot program that provides wrap-around support “for some of our community’s most vulnerable who are experiencing addiction.”

Shared Health said that such programs are designed “to support participants in stabilizing and feeling safe without judgment.”

In 2006, the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse reported that between 8,100 and 9,100 deaths in 2002 were attributable to alcohol abuse. The leading causes of death were cirrhosis, motor vehicle collisions and suicide.

Deaths attributed to alcohol abuse represented 1.9 per cent of all deaths in Canada in 2002. It also resulted in more than 1.5 million acute-care days in a hospital.

Kinew announced Feb. 2 that Liquor Marts would pull U.S. products from store shelves after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose crippling tariffs on Canadian imports.

The provincial Crown corporation has said the “duty paid landed cost” of the U.S. booze it put into storage is $3.4 million. It said it couldn’t provide a retail value, but its 2023-24 annual report noted the gross profit margin for liquor products was 52 per cent that fiscal year.

Swallowing the cost of the American alcohol and putting it in storage has been worth it, Kinew said.

“This is one of the tools that we’ve used that’s actually gotten the attention of the Trump administration. In order to push back against Donald Trump’s tariffs, keeping the American booze off the shelves is good,” the premier said.

Nova Scotia’s $14-million inventory of U.S. alcohol consists mainly of wine and spirits such as whiskey, a news release from that province said.

“We remain committed to a Team Canada approach to tariffs and trade,” Premier Tim Houston is quoted saying in the news release. “We will not be ordering any more from the United States once this inventory is gone. But Nova Scotians have already paid for this product. We don’t want it to go to waste. That’s why we’re selling it and using the proceeds to help those in need.”

The province said it will donate about $4 million — the estimated amount the Nova Scotia Liquor Corp., will return to the province once the product is sold and expenses calculated — to Feed Nova Scotia and other groups that provide community food access.

— with files from Nicole Buffie

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca