As the Ford government moves to allow more public alcohol consumption, after expanding beer and wine sales and lowering some taxes, one group is imploring the province to redirect a portion of revenue to education and prevention.
The Canada Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Research Network said it is worried about Ontario’s moves to enable more drinking, and wants to see a set portion of revenue from its sales go to education and care.
“We are concerned about some of the recent policy changes in Ontario,” the group’s executive director, Kathy Unsworth, told Global News in an interview.
“They are making alcohol more accessible for the public. We know that when alcohol is more accessible, consumption goes up. And we also know that there are very significant harms related to alcohol.”
The concerns come as the government moves to allow drinking across Ontario’s provincial parks. Over the past year, the province has also reduced markups at the LCBO and cut some taxes.
Two years ago, it moved to allow beer, wine and ready-to-drink beverages to be sold in Ontario’s corner stores.
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Unsworth, whose organization researches fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and advocates for greater awareness, said the harms that come from drinking mean the government should be redirecting some of its alcohol revenue.
“I would love to see a portion of the taxes that are collected by the government be funnelled or flagged for education, awareness and training for FASD or alcohol use in general,” she said.
“There are other provinces that do it and do it in different ways, but Ontario currently does not.”
The Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority, for example, has an agreement to fund awareness of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance said “the people of Ontario should be treated like adults” and given a choice when it comes to alcohol purchases.
“Our government is investing an additional $10 million over five years in funding to support social responsibility and public health efforts to ensure alcohol continues to be sold and consumed safely in the expanded marketplace,” they wrote in a statement.
“Existing requirements related to staff training, minimum pricing, hours of sale, and warning signs will be maintained and applied to all new retail outlets.”
Unsworth said her organization had struggled to make inroads with the Ford government.
“We haven’t had like a lot of success with this particular government in terms of trying to get them to make an investment in FASD or to join CanFASD,” she said.
“We have jurisdictional memberships and we have the northern and western provinces and New Brunswick that are actually provincial and territorial members of CanFSD.”
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