Ontario Tory leader Tory says he'd prohibit Food & Drink from selling ads

Of course it is pre-election time, but the Ontario Progressive Conservative leader John Tory has made a commitment that, if elected, he would prohibit the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) and its magazine Food and Drink from competing with the private sector for the sale of magazine advertising. He made the statement as part of a wider announcement about arts and culture support that the Tories are promising.

According to Magazines Canada, the LCBO presently captures nearly 40% of all branded beverage alcohol advertising in Canada and its magazine has the 20th largest advertising revenues of all Canadian magazines. In 2005 alone, their revenues increased by 26% to nearly $12 million. Despite being distributed in Ontario alone, LCBO is now the 10th largest magazine publisher (by circulation) in Canada.

"This is a welcomed step," said Magazines Canada CEO Mark Jamison of the Conservative pledge. " The LCBO, a government monopoly, competes unfairly with Ontario magazines; the majority of which are small enterprises that depend on advertising revenues."

In a story in the Ottawa Citizen, Tory accused the LCBO of "muscling wholesalers into buying ads in its bi-monthly publication, Food and Drink, while the magazine industry struggles with U.S. competition."

"They use inducements and deals with respect to shelf space in the liquor stores, which are government owned, to, in effect, put together deals that the private sector can't match," he said. "I don't think it is right when we have people starting up magazines, to have a government financed monopoly out there selling advertising, competing with them, when that magazine is paid for, in effect, by taxpayers' money."

But a spokesman for the LCBO disagreed with Mr. Tory's assumption that the industry's advertising dollars would necessarily flow into other Canadian magazines.

(It's worth noting that a lawsuit based on a similar situation continues to crawl through the courts in Nova Scotia between Saltscapes magazine and the Nova Scotia Liquor Commission, which started a similar magazine and rolled it out to the rest of the Atlantic provinces, in direct competition with the private sector.)

Tory's arts and culture plan includes the promise of a three year funding commitment to arts institutions and major attractions such as Caribana and the Stratford and Shaw Festivals and to major institutions such as the Art Gallery of Ontario.

In addition he said their plan included:

• making provision for taxpayers to make a voluntary contribution on their tax forms to an Ontario Arts and Culture Fund;
• introducing legislation to protect child actors;
• introducting an Ontario Youth and Culture Passport that would allow youth access to cultural institutions across the province; and
• aggressively seeking federal support for tax-relief of full-time artists.
  

"If we want our arts and culture sectors to be leaders, then government itself must be a leader,"
said Tory.