Canada, ON: Ontario will not raise drinking age or stop alcohol sale in corner stores

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he will not consider raising the drinking age or reducing the number of stores that sell alcohol amid health-related concerns made by the province’s top doctor, CP24 reported on April 3.

“We believe in treating people like adults,” he said at a news conference in Vaughan, Ont. on Wednesday, April 3.

“You get to go into a retail store, a big box store, and buy a bottle of wine with your steak and maybe a six pack of beer like the rest of the world. That's what we believe in.”

In his annual report, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore recommended the province adopt a “comprehensive alcohol strategy designed to reduce alcohol-related harms.”

Part of that strategy included monitoring the impact of the minimum legal drinking age on the health of Ontario residents, specifically in terms of “youth morbidity and mortality.”

“Alcohol is the most widely used substance in Ontario,” the report says, noting that alcohol consumption was also significantly higher during the pandemic.

“Alcohol is a leading cause of preventable death in Ontario and a significant cause of serious health harms. In an average year in Ontario, about 4,330 (4.3 per cent) deaths, 22,009 (2.1 per cent) hospitalizations, and 195,693 (3.7 per cent) of emergency department visits among people aged 15 and older can be attributed to alcohol use.”

Health Canada adopted new guidelines last year that focuses on the key message that “less is better.”

Moore also suggested the province should launch a “wide-reaching evidence-informed” education campaign to improve public awareness of the health risks associated with alcohol use while working with the federal government to require warning labels or signage that displays those risks publicly.

The Ontario government has said it will not be exploring any of the recommendations in the report.

“I'll always support Dr. Moore in the job he's doing. Do we disagree? Yes, we disagree,” Ford said, adding that if an individual who is 19 can be enrolled in the military, they should “be allowed to have a beer.”

Dr. Dominique Morisano, clinical psychologist and adjunct professor at the University of Toronto and University of Ottawa, told CTV News Toronto that raising the legal drinking age would likely reduce alcohol-related deaths in the province.

“But it would be best practice to do these things in conjunction with other changes.”

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) suggested in 2019 that raising the minimum legal drinking age would reduce alcohol-related harm. However, the report also said this would be “politically difficult.”

Instead, it suggested the province focus on enforcement for both purchase and advertising of alcohol products.

Morisano said she agrees with Moore’s “all-of-society approach” to addressing substance use and harms, and argues that Ontario needs to address issues such as housing and access to food and water.

“If we were to raise the age of legal drinking, if we were to reduce the number of stores that are available to purchase alcohol … … you're going to reduce drinking, you're going to reduce alcohol related harm.”

Ontario has 2.1 alcohol retail outlets per 10,000 population, the report notes, in part due to an expansion of sales to grocery stores in 2015.

The Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation (CAPE) Project, funded by Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, suggests a maximum retail density of two per 10,000

“The expansion of alcohol sales in Ontario in 2015 was associated with a 17.8 per cent increase in emergency department visits attributable to alcohol, which was more than twice the rate of increase for all emergency department visits over this period,” the report notes.

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