Quebec Finance Minister Eric Girard says Ontario’s plan to pull Crown Royal whisky from government liquor stores — retaliation for Diageo closing its Amherstburg bottling plant — is misguided, warning that with trade tensions rising with the United States, now is not the time to weaken Canadian supply chains.
Quebec speaks up for its own workers
Girard said he has shared his concerns directly with Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy over the boycott, which Premier Doug Ford intends to launch next month by removing Crown Royal from Liquor Control Board of Ontario stores.
Ontario is retaliating against Diageo, the British drinks giant, for deciding to close its bottling plant in Amherstburg, near Windsor, a move affecting about 200 jobs. Ford has said he believes those Ontario jobs will end up in the United States; Diageo announced construction of a new manufacturing plant in Alabama last year.
But Diageo has said Crown Royal destined for Canada and non-U.S. export markets will instead be bottled at its existing plant in Valleyfield, Que., southwest of Montreal — which is precisely Girard’s point. A boycott aimed at punishing Diageo in Ontario would also hit Canadian workers in Quebec.
“I understand the concerns of the Ontario workers affected by the situation at Diageo. No one wishes to see jobs lost,” Girard said in a statement on Jan. 19. “Québec and Ontario share a long history of economic partnerships built on collaboration. In the uncertain economic context we are currently facing, particularly in light of trade tensions with our southern neighbours, this is not the time to multiply measures that risk further weakening Canadian production chains.”
“My priority, as minister, is the protection of Canadian workers, including those in Québec who work in Valleyfield and who would be affected by such a decision,” he added.
A spokeswoman for the Société des alcools du Québec confirmed the SAQ will not be removing Crown Royal, citing the connection to the Quebec plant.
Manitoba made the same appeal
Girard is the second provincial leader to intervene. Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew made a similar overture to Ford the week before, asking him not to follow through. Diageo also operates a plant in Gimli, Man., which employs about 76 people and buys materials from local farmers.
“I’m asking you to reconsider because this is about sticking together as Team Canada,” Kinew said. “We know that we’re standing together against the U.S. But a house divided against itself cannot stand.” Kinew said that if Ontario proceeds, Manitoba will not pull Ontario liquor from its shelves in retaliation, because that would hurt Canadian jobs.
Ford, for his part, was unmoved at a news conference on Monday. “My Number 1 job is to protect the workers here in Ontario, protect their communities, protect the people of Ontario, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that we protect them,” he said.
What Diageo says, and what happened
Diageo announced the Amherstburg closure in August, saying the plant would close by February. The company has stressed that Crown Royal will continue to be mashed, distilled and aged in Canada, as it has been since 1939, and that it will keep its headquarters and warehouse operations in the Greater Toronto Area as well as the Gimli plant.
That timeline held: Amherstburg’s workers had ratified a closure agreement in December that increased their transition entitlements, and the plant closed as scheduled in February — leaving Valleyfield, the very plant Girard moved to defend, as the home of Canadian Crown Royal bottling.
