It's time to finally free the beer - Todayville

Samantha Dagres and Alessia Iafano examine Canada's restrictive alcohol trade barriers and the "free the beer" movement challenging provincial monopolies.

Canada's alcohol trade operates like separate countries, where buying wine from France is easier than purchasing craft beer from a neighboring province. Provincial monopolies like Ontario's LCBO maintain high markups and limited selection while blocking interprovincial alcohol sales. The authors trace the issue from Gérard Comeau's legal challenge against cross-border beer purchases to recent progress toward liberalization. Despite constitutional barriers giving provinces control over alcohol sales, several provinces have signed agreements to reduce trade barriers.

• Provincial alcohol monopolies inflate prices through markups averaging one-third of pre-tax cost
• Supreme Court ruled there's no constitutional right to free interprovincial alcohol trade
• Ontario and seven other provinces signed agreements aimed at creating direct-to-consumer sales framework
• Canada's domestic alcohol market worth $15.5 billion could benefit from increased competition and consumer choice