March 18, 2026 – By David Bridger, president of SEIU Local 2 Canada representing more than 20,000 Canadian workers

Canada’s brewing industry has long been a source of stable, middle-class employment, supporting thousands of unionized workers in communities large and small. From production floors and warehouses to logistics, maintenance, and quality control, brewery workers take pride in producing a product that is deeply woven into Canada’s economic and social fabric.

But today, those jobs are increasingly under pressure, and one of the most immediate and avoidable threats is the federal government’s automatic annual increase in beer excise taxes scheduled for April 1.

As President of SEIU Local 2 and the Canadian Brewery Council, representing brewery workers across Canada, I am calling on the federal government to act now to cancel this year’s scheduled beer tax increase and permanently eliminate the escalator tax that automatically raises alcohol excise duties every year.

Earlier this month, I joined 12 union leaders representing brewery workers across the country in writing directly to the prime minister to urge immediate action. Together, we made clear that continued automatic tax increases are placing unnecessary strain on an industry that supports good Canadian jobs from grain to glass. Workers are increasingly concerned about the cumulative impact these policies are having on long-term employment stability in brewing and across its supply chain.

At a time when Canadians are struggling with affordability, automatically increasing taxes on one of the country’s most domestically produced consumer goods makes little political, economic or social sense. Since the escalator tax was introduced in 2017, federal beer excise duties have risen by roughly 18 per cent without a single parliamentary vote, public debate, or assessment of the cumulative impact on workers, consumers, or local economies.

For brewery workers, these increases are not abstract fiscal policy decisions. They translate directly into operational pressure inside facilities across the country. Brewing is a manufacturing sector facing unpredictable rising costs for energy, transportation, aluminum, barley, packaging, and labour. When taxes rise automatically every year, companies are left with limited options such as absorbing the cost, raising consumer prices, delaying investment, or reducing expenses elsewhere.

Too often, elsewhere means jobs.

Canada’s beer sector supports more than 149,000 jobs across agriculture, manufacturing, hospitality, and retail. Unionized brewery positions in particular provide family-supporting wages, benefits, pensions, and long-term career stability. These are precisely the kinds of jobs governments say they want to protect and grow in Canada’s manufacturing base.

Yet the escalator tax moves policy in the opposite direction. It creates permanent cost uncertainty in an industry that depends on long-term capital investment and domestic supply chains. Unlike many other consumer products, beer is overwhelmingly made in Canada using Canadian ingredients, processed by Canadian workers, and sold in Canadian communities. When beer production weakens, the impact is felt far beyond brewery walls, reaching farmers, truck drivers, packaging workers, restaurant staff, and small businesses nationwide.

What makes the situation particularly frustrating is that this outcome is entirely preventable.

The federal government has already demonstrated that it can intervene when economic conditions demand flexibility. Canadians have heard repeated commitments to affordability and support for workers. Cancelling the April 1 tax increase would be a practical and immediate step consistent with those commitments. More importantly, permanently eliminating the automatic escalator would restore democratic accountability to federal tax policy. Decisions that affect jobs, prices, and industrial competitiveness should be debated openly by elected representatives, not adjusted annually by a formula regardless of economic conditions.

This is not a call for special treatment. It is a call for fairness, predictability, and timely consideration with sensible debate.

Workers understand that governments need revenue to fund public services. However, taxation policy must also recognize economic reality. When nearly 46 per cent of the price of a beer already goes to government, automatic annual increases disconnected from industry performance or consumer affordability place unnecessary strain on workers, consumers, and employers alike, while undermining confidence and investment in Canadian manufacturing jobs. The government in Ontario understands this and has not used its automatic escalator increase in eight years.

Across the labour movement, momentum is growing because workers see what is at stake. Brewery workers want to keep producing great Canadian products, support their families, and contribute to their communities. What they need from government is stability, not another automatic cost increase layered onto an already challenging economic environment.

The federal government still has time to act before April 1.

Cancelling this year’s beer tax increase and ending the escalator tax permanently would send a clear signal that Ottawa is serious about protecting Canadian jobs, supporting domestic manufacturing in the face of U.S. tariffs, and easing affordability pressures for workers and consumers alike.

For brewery workers across Canada, the message is simple. Protect jobs, protect communities, and let Parliament, not an automatic formula, decide when taxes should rise.