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Canadians Pay $16 More In Tax For Case Of Beer Than Americans: Conservative Leader

David Krayden Ottawa Bureau Chief
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Canadian Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer said in a Sunday night tweet said Canadians are paying $20 in taxes every time they buy a 24 case of beer.

According to a report from Beer Canada, that’s $16 more than Americans have to pay for the same amount of the beverage.

Scheer was inspired to tweet his outrage after the president of Beer Canada said Canadians are being taken to the cleaners when they go to the beer store. As the Toronto Sun reported, Luke Harford said Canadians pay a lot more tax than their southern neighbors — even if it is stronger beer.

“Where a Canadian consumer is paying $20 in tax on a case of beer, their U.S. neighbour is paying $4,” Harford said. “A lot of that is driven by the provinces … the provincial level of taxes are 13 times greater than state level taxes.”

Referring to his report, Harford said, “On average, 47 percent of the price of beer – and that’s just the commodity-specific tax on beer – 47 percent of the price of a case of beer in this country is tax,” he said. “It’s almost half. It’s just too much and brewers are saying, ‘Enough is enough.’”

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