Amid brand confusions, what does ‘Brewed in Canada’ mean?

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The head of the Canadian arm of Molson Coors Beverage Company is hoping consumers and policymakers understand what it means for a drink to be “brewed in Canada” as they make decisions on buying Canadian products during the trade war with the United States.

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Chantalle Butler, president of Molson Coors Canada, said not having the right information about which products are Canadian and which are American could have ripple effects across the country and thus undermine the goal of “buying Canadian.”

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“I think in this time of people wanting to make decisions to support Canadians, it’s our responsibility to make sure that… they actually understand what it means to be brewed in Canada,” Butler said during an event at the Canadian Club Toronto last week.

Molson Breweries, now part of the Canada-U.S. multinational corporation Molson Coors Beverage, is Canada’s second oldest company, behind Hudson’s Bay. The company dates back to 1786, when North America’s oldest beer brewery was founded in Montreal. Molson Canadian, first brewed in 1959, remains one of Canada’s most iconic beer brands.

While Molson Breweries merged with U.S.-based Coors Brewing in 2005, the company remains partially Canadian-owned and is now one of the world’s largest beer makers.

“As we think about our role as being Canadian, (we’re) making sure that we are standing loud and proud about our heritage,” Butler said. “We are a global company started in Canada, 239 years old and still counting for many more centuries.”

Butler, who was promoted to her role exactly a year ago, said recent political and economic events, particularly tariff announcements, has brought to light the importance of articulating what it means to be a Canadian-brewed product, and what it means to be a Canadian company.

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Last week, the province of Saskatchewan walked back its ban on the sale of 54 types of American-branded beer made in Canada after an outcry by industry groups pointed out the beer is made in facilities across the country by Canadian workers and uses barley grown in Saskatchewan.

The ban, which included a directive for the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA) to stop purchasing U.S. alcohol, initially came into effect in early March as the province’s response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian goods.

“And so we banded together as an industry — Beer Canada, Restaurants Canada, many of our partners and collective brewers — and made sure that the government of Saskatchewan understood what it means to be brewed in Canada,” said Butler.

Molson Coors employs more than 2,500 workers in Canada and has nine breweries across the country. The company buys barley from Saskatchewan farmers, as well as many other grains supplied by Canadian farmers across the country, she said.

“We employ many, many people in different supply chains and other facets, and so making sure that (the government) understood the decisions they were making, the impact they would have not only on the Saskatchewan economy and population, but (that it could have) a ripple effect across Canada and actually be counterproductive to what they were trying to accomplish,” she added.

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She said the Saskatchewan government did work on the feedback and reverse their decision “relatively quickly.”

“It was a good lesson for us as an industry on how important it is. Consumers have good intents and (are) obviously entitled to their own decisions, but trying to make sure they have the right information and the right education to make those decisions and not end up with unintended consequences,” she said.

Before Saskatchewan, a number of Canadian provinces announced similar directives to remove U.S.-made alcohol from provincial liquor stores in retaliation for the tariffs, although implementation wasn’t simple.

As the U.S. formally launched a trade war with Canada and Mexico in the beginning of February, provinces such as Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador announced their provincial liquor authorities would stop stocking and selling some or all U.S.-produced alcohol until Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs were dropped.

On Feb. 2, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said that when the U.S. tariffs kicked in on Feb. 4, all American products would disappear from the province’s Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) shelves. The LCBO is one of the biggest alcohol purchasers in the world.

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“Every year, LCBO sells nearly $1 billion worth of American wine, beer, spirits and seltzers. Not anymore,” he wrote on social media.

On March 4, the LCBO officially announced it would stop selling U.S products in response to the tariffs. At the time, it said more than 3,600 products from 35 U.S. states were listed, and that U.S. products would not be purchased by the LCBO until it was directed to resume normal business.

B.C. Premier David Eby’s promise was similar but much more targeted, directing the provincial liquor board to immediately stop purchasing and selling American liquor from Republican-led “red states.”

Butler said her company is monitoring the ever-changing tariff situation and its impact on business operations. She said 90 per cent of their products are made in Canada, while the other 10 per cent, its Heineken portfolio, comes from Europe.

“As the tariff situation unfolds, we will deal with that,” she said, noting that a large portion of their supplies are locally sourced. “From that perspective, I think it’s great that we support Canadian farmers, and we have a lot of materials that should not be directly impacted from tariffs.”

• Email: dpaglinawan@postmedia.com

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