A problem that has only arisen because of Doug Ford is somehow Wynne's problem? I also doubt that any other PC government or the NDP would've tried to reneg on the deal. It's only because we have a headstrong asshat as premiere who feels contracts mean nothing.
To be fair, it was an awful and unnecessary deal. The Beer Store has no intrinsic right, legal, constitutional or otherwise to a monopoly. In point of fact, in the absence of legislation granting one, the act of having one would be illegal
under competition laws.
There was no buy-off required, or permission needed to loosen the monopoly. It wasn't merely a courtesy or a legal nicety to make a deal, it was, charitably, ill-conceived and contrary to Ontario's interests.
One might not be wrong to wonder why any 'deal' was made at all, let alone one which included penalty clauses against Ontario for partially extending an otherwise illegal monopoly by way of this deal and supporting statutes?
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Don't take that to mean that I think Ford should fork over 1B by any stretch of the imagination.
I think he should sit down w/the brewers and say he's been thinking that their corporate profits seem excessive, and as such he's been thinking of raising corporate tax on breweries from 11.5% to 23%; is there any reason they could think of that he might want to reconsider......?
In the interim, he still has a couple of hundred supermarket permits he can give out/sell.
Which will diminish the marketshare of the Beer Store by about 10-20%, and which, in turn would reduce the profit of said company and therefore any compensation to which they might be entitled.
Then I'm sure a happy medium can be found..........another 100 spots upfront; reduce the term of the deal to 7 years from 10...........blah blah.