Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said in my Member's statement, the brewing industry in Canada accounts for 60 percent of the industrial brewing workforce. It's a really important local driver. Every province that supported their industry is seeing phenomenal growth and return on investments in these projects. Yet, in the Northwest Territories, we tax beer brewed 67 cents per litre versus Alberta, which only taxes 10 cents a litre. And this is the closest jurisdiction for comparison. It's attracting our brewing companies' interest because it's so much cheaper to do business. If they had done business there in the exact same time period, it would have been $162,000 paid in NWT tax versus $9300.
So I'm going to ask the Minister, will she give them a break, this very small industry that accounts for 1 percent of our total share of sales, will she give them a break and lower the tax to 10 cents? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. I am assuming that it's the Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know, because I did have the opportunity to sit down with the NWT Brewing Company.
Mr. Speaker, the brewery markup is what is at issue here. So right now, the Northwest Territories Liquor and Cannabis Commission has a general rate. For everything that crosses the border up into the North, there is a markup rate on all alcohol products here. And that markup rate does take into account the fact that we have fairly significant social issues that stem from overconsumption of alcohol and alcohol-related dependencies. So that is still part of what makes up that market rate and what makes up the fact that our overall markup rate is high. We know it's high, and we've been asked in terms of when we go out to do reviews of the act and our pricing to keep it high to consider the social realities here in the Northwest Territories.
When there was a brewery discount initially put into place some years ago now, it was done knowing that we have exactly one brewery here in the Northwest Territories that would be able to make use of it. Having had the opportunity to meet with them, we initially had a production cap put on what that markup would be. Alberta's system is entirely different. I gather they have 10s, 20 -- I think maybe up to 70 different categories. So their system's quite different. But in meeting with them, we've said, look, let's go back, let's look at this, is it still working for you? Is it still something that will allow you to be a thriving business here in the Northwest Territories? And, Mr. Speaker, I remain committed to doing exactly that. Thank you
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's not working for this -- for the NWT Brewing Company. And it's not working for anyone else who'd want to jump into this industry. The brewing company has said it's too onerous, we'd never do it again. So it's time to make it easier. Alberta has different categories, different tiers. Would the Minister add more tiers to our production -- to the production markup so we could situate the NWT Brewing Company in a lower tier and still provide higher taxes to companies, bigger companies, that are producing more alcohol? Again, give them a break. We're not talking about reducing overall tax for all liquor. Let's tax Budweiser appropriately. Let's tax NWT Brewing a lot less. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so, again, the general markup rate does apply to everything that's coming across this border, including, you know, the bigger companies or whatnot. I would first note, Mr. Speaker -- there's a lot of folks that listen to us here -- there are rules with respect to interjurisdictional trade, and that does apply to the cross-border sales of alcohol across all of Canada. So certainly anything we do when we make changes in this space do need to be compliant with the trade rules, trade regulations. But to the extent that we are able to create a system that is more amenable to growing and positive business industry for a small business here in the Northwest Territories, again, Mr. Speaker, the beauty of being a small jurisdiction, you can sit down with your one company in this one space, bring in senior folks from a department and say, hey, look, what can we do to try to make our system one that is supportive and positive for that small business, keeping in mind, again, as I've said, that we have trade laws to work with. We have an alcohol strategy here that, at one point, was asking us to, in fact, raise the increases, raise the rates on alcohol. So trying to put all those things together, again, I certainly made a commitment in a previous meeting. Happy to make that commitment again. We want to see a small business succeed. Everyone in this room, I think, wants to see small business succeed, just need to make sure we're doing so in a way that takes those other things into consideration. If it means changing the production cap, changing the markup rate, that's something that needs to be looked at carefully and considered what else is happening in other jurisdictions and that is successful. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the Minister is aware of this and wants to help. But she can help by changing these rates. Another way she can help is by allowing manufacturers, liquor manufacturers of beer, brewing manufacturers, to be able to handle alcohol products that are brewed outside of jurisdictions that are in their stock. Right now that all has to go through the commission. Is she willing to make changes to the regulations that will allow companies like the NWT Brewing Company to -- license to handle alcohol to reduce the red tape and allow them more control over their inventories and stop paying high rates to store those inventories in other jurisdictions? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is quite correct. The current Liquor Act, which is still the old Liquor Act that we're operating under, has some pretty limited mechanisms and actually is quite out of date. So in the last Assembly, we were very pleased to see a change to the liquor legislation, modernizing it. Still need to get those regulations put in place. So this is, in some ways, the right time to be asking what those regulations might contain because we are at the point of being able to put those regulations together in a way that can, again, respect the different social issues of balance but also looking at how we can best support an industry here in the Northwest Territories. And that may well include an opportunity for someone who produces a product -- is a Northwest Territories company but produces a product down south to be able to hold, move, warehouse their product. They currently can't. It's the right time to bring it forward, so I'm happy to certainly take that back to the department and look at whether that fits into the regime that we have. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I've met with my honourable friend, the Minister of Finance. I've met with the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, spoke with the Minister of health. How many more meetings do I have to have until we can get some clarity on where we're going with this? Just wondering if the Minister can advise. Is it one? Two? Three? When are we going to get some commitment to act on these problems instead of just appreciate that they're problems? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, that clarifies for me the comment, I think, made earlier about being extensive meetings. Because I've had one meeting. But I know when we were meeting with the Minister of health, because there's an alcohol-managed alcohol program here in the Northwest Territories and some interest in whether or not a local brewery could participate to support that, that's a very different question, Mr. Speaker, from asking whether or not the production cap needs to change, the markup needs to change, regulations around holding or transporting need to change. That does sit solely within the Department of Finance. And, again, Mr. Speaker, I was, it wasn't that long ago, Minister of ITI as well so I'm conscious of the need to increase small business. I'm conscious of the need to be -- have a positive and enabling environment for small business. That's something that I believe all my colleagues would share. I made the commitment in that meeting. I'm happy to make it again. We are going to look at these issues. But we want to do that in a way that, again, balances all of this. There are different ways to find good solutions to support this business within the context of the Northwest Territories, in a way that supports our business environment and also supports our social environment and adheres to our trade regulations. I believe we can make change; I just don't know what it's going to be at this moment. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
