Yukon bars and restaurants ask for higher discount on liquor

Dozens of Yukon businesses are petitioning the Yukon government to give them a larger discount on wholesale liquor prices to help them stay afloat.

The petition, tabled in Legislative Assembly last week, asks the government to increase the wholesale discount on liquor products from 17 per cent to 25 per cent for all Yukon licensees.

It cites "multiple years of an extremely difficult economic climate" in the territory, and rising costs for goods, food, liquor and labour. It also says that liquor discounts for licensees are larger in other jurisdictions.

Luke Pantin, executive director of the Yukon Chamber of Commerce, says the food and beverage industry in the territory is "not particularly healthy" right now.

"Part of the issue that they have is, while their profit margins have shrunk substantially, they're also finding themselves with increased costs, wages, and you know, rents have not gone down," he said.

"So it's a pretty rough situation for the industry right now here in Yukon, not just in Whitehorse, but across the territory."

Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon also raised the issue in the Legislative Assembly this week, calling on the government to help ease the strain on those businesses. He said the territory is "almost certainly in the midst of a recession."

"It's far more than just a few businesses that are facing these challenges," Dixon said.

Sandy Silver, the minister of finance and the minister responsible for the Yukon Liquor Corporation, argued that his government has offered plenty of support to hospitality businesses in recent years, particularly through the pandemic.

When it comes to subsidizing the costs of liquor, Silver said his goal is to "find the appropriate balances."

"We need to balance between the needs of the licensees, and the need to return dollars to the government to fund critical services for all Yukoners," Silver said.

"I would think that the Yukon Party would be the first ones, as a Conservative government, to maybe ask us to get out of the way of businesses — but instead they're asking us to subsidize liquor."