N.S. craft brewers target budget as ‘leverage’ for rule changes

CITYnews halifax/ By Steve Gow

As Nova Scotia sees an increase in craft breweries struggling to make ends meet, the organization representing the industry is pointing to the province’s own budget as a bargaining chip for much-needed changes.

In February, Halifax-based 2 Crows Brewing announced it would be shutting down operations after producing beer for nearly a decade.

While Andrew Tanner, president of the Craft Brewers Association of Nova Scotia, says he doesn’t know of any other specific craft breweries on the verge of collapse, he does know many are struggling to survive.

“I think people are keeping their cards close to their chest,” Tanner says. “We’re certainly out there talking to our friends in the industry (and) everybody’s feeling the same pain.”

Tanner says ever since the province announced, in the summer, a policy study looking at exploring expanding where alcohol is sold and consumed, the industry has been in a standstill.

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He says even prior to that, the industry was pushing for changes to reduce a retail sales markup that he says has morphed into a tax on selling to restaurants and private stores that don’t involve the NSLC.

“It’s a small dollar figure to be quite honest, in the scheme of things,” says Tanner. “I think for Nova Scotia beer, it amounts to $200,000, but every little bit helps to be honest, if we can lessen it a bit and get back to what the purpose of that particular tax was for.”

Tanner says local brewers have also long pushed for changes to a regulation that dramatically hikes the amount of tax brewers pay if they exceed producing 15,000 hectolitres.

Introduced in 2021, that regulation meant microbreweries had to pay more than 84 per cent on all of the beer produced if it exceeded the 15,000 hectolitre limit. Otherwise, that markup remained at 40 per cent.

Tanner says with the provincial budget focused on economic development, his organization will be pushing for changes to those restrictive rules as a measure to keep the industry thriving into 2026.

“We think that breweries are definitely helping with that both on the side of tourism and on the side of jobs and employment and so on,” he says. “We’re going to focus on the fact that they’re talking about economic development as a positive and that will be our leverage when speaking with government.”