BRACEBRIDGE, ON – Muskoka Brewery has announced that it will be discontinuing distribution of its beers in the “New West Partnership” provinces – British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan – due to beer taxation changes that were recently introduced in Alberta.
Under the new rules, breweries outside of the New West Partnership region must now pay a substantially higher rate of tax than before to have beer sold in Alberta.
“Up until this new legislation was announced, we had no intention of leaving (the region),” said Muskoka Brewery president and founder Gary McMullen in a statement. “In fact, we had plans to widen our footprint based on the growing demand for our beers. We’re sorry to leave our friends and supporters, but with this new tax increase it’s now unsustainable to sell our beer in these provinces.”
Muskoka’s operations in the three provinces will be winding down in coming weeks, with a full withdrawal planned by the end of 2015.