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I'm not sure that I understand concerns about expanding liquor sales to private retailers. Many private businesses already sell age-restricted products including tobacco, lottery tickets, beer and wine and cannabis, and only cashiers who've completed the provincially mandated training can handle beer, wine and cannabis sales.
As for the idea that LCBO profit support for key public programs and services such as health care, education, and infrastructure might be lost, there will still be excise tax collected on every bottle sold through private retail.
Those businesses will also pay tax on their profits, so there's no reason to suppose that those ongoing revenues couldn't continue to provide such support for government priorities.
Finally, private businesses rather than a government agency will be paying costs, from distribution through retail, certainly representing a significant savings to the provincial budget.
All in all, I struggle to understand why we need public service employees to retail any product, alcohol or anything else. It's long past time to rethink how alcohol is sold in this province.
T. Cordery
Barrie
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