Canadian governments earn $15.2 billion from alcohol and cannabis sales

Federal and provincial governments earned $15.2 billion from the control and sale of alcohol ($13.6 billion, +1.1%) and recreational cannabis ($1.6 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022. This includes net income from provincial liquor and cannabis authorities, excise taxes, retail sales taxes, other specific taxes, and licenses and permits, reported Statistics Canada on Friday.

“Overall, liquor authorities and other retail outlets sold $26.1 billion worth of alcoholic beverages in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, up 2.4 per cent from a year earlier. The increase in sales of alcoholic beverages was driven by inflation, which rose 2.8 per cent for alcoholic beverages purchased from stores from March 2021 to March 2022,” said the federal agency.

“On a volume basis, sales of alcohol declined 1.2 per cent to 3,141 million litres in 2021/2022, which is equivalent to 9.5 standard alcoholic beverages per week per Canadian of legal drinking age. This was the first decline since 2013/2014 and the largest decline in over a decade.

“By volume, wine sales decreased 4.0 per cent to 516 million litres in 2021/2022, which is equivalent to 2.4 standard glasses of wine per week per person of legal drinking age. This was the largest decrease in the volume of wine sold since Statistics Canada began tracking alcohol sales in 1949. In terms of dollar value, wine sales rose 2.1 per cent to $8.1 billion in 2021/2022, at a pace in line with the previous year.”

StatsCan said by volume, beer sales declined 2.8 per cent to 2,061 million litres in 2021/2022, which is equivalent to 3.7 standard bottles of beer per week per person of legal drinking age. This was a new all-time low for beer volume sales per person since Statistics Canada began tracking alcohol sales in 1949. The total value of beer sales by liquor stores, agencies and other retail outlets fell 0.7 per cent to $9.1 billion in the 2021/2022 fiscal year, the third consecutive annual decrease.

The report said Canadians bought $2.1 billion worth of ciders and coolers in 2021/2022. This was up 13.5 per cent from the previous fiscal year, but at much slower rate than the 40.2 per cent growth seen in 2020/2021.

“Sales of recreational cannabis by provincial cannabis authorities and other retail outlets were $4.0 billion in 2021/2022, equivalent to $131 per person of legal age to consume cannabis. Yukon had the highest per person cannabis sales ($291), followed by Alberta ($210) and Saskatchewan ($185), while Quebec had the lowest ($89), followed by Manitoba ($107) and Nova Scotia ($125),” said Statistics Canada.

“Dried cannabis was the most popular type of cannabis sold, accounting for 71.1 per cent of recreational cannabis sales, followed by inhaled extracts such as vape pens, hash, and rosin (18.1 per cent) and edibles (4.1 per cent). Among provinces, Quebec sold the highest proportion of dried cannabis (86.3 per cent), likely because of its ban on cannabis vapes, edibles and topicals in 2021/2022. Newfoundland and Labrador sold the smallest proportion of inhaled extracts (3.8 per cent), partially because of its ban on cannabis vapes.”