‘Last chance’ U.S. booze pulled from Liquor Marts

WINNIPEG — American alcohol that returned to Manitoba Liquor Mart shelves in May as part of a “last chance” sale is headed back to storage or will be destroyed.

“We are removing U.S. liquor products from Liquor Mart shelves,” a spokesperson for Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries said Thursday. The Crown corporation had been pushing to off-load its stockpile of U.S. booze.

Premier Wab Kinew launched a provincewide boycott of American alcohol in March 2025 to fight back against tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries has not placed new orders since the boycott began, but it still had inventory.

As of early May, the U.S. inventory had a value of roughly $3.4 million, which is about one-third of what was removed from shelves and placed in storage, Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries has said. It was unable to provide an inventory update on Thursday.

“While we work through the logistics of removing U.S. products from Liquor Mart shelves across our 63 stores and determining the appropriate handling of that inventory, we won’t be in a position to provide updated inventory figures or costs associated with the removal,” the Crown corporation spokesperson said in an email Thursday.

In December, some of the stockpiled U.S. alcohol returned to store shelves. The goal was to sell stock before it expired and went to waste, and use the revenue to help charities.

In January, the province issued a news release announcing it had donated $6.6 million from the proceeds of that liquor sale to charities. In May, it put more of its U.S. stock on Liquor Mart shelves. Now, that is being removed.

On Thursday, the premier said Manitoba doesn’t want to give any shelf space to American products when the U.S. is threatening Canada’s economy.

“Prime Minister Carney was very clear that we were attacked,” Kinew said when asked about removal of the U.S. booze.

“I think part of our response that’s been very effective has been to take the U.S. booze off the shelf,” the premier said at an unrelated event. He said that he and most premiers are prepared to keep American alcohol off store shelves until an acceptable Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement is negotiated. Kinew’s pet phrase during the trade war has been “No CUSMA, no booze-ma.”

On Thursday, he took a more serious tone.

“So long as the Trump administration is trying to harm our economy, I don’t see why a publicly owned Liquor Mart should give shelf space to American products when we could be using that to highlight great Canadian products instead,” Kinew said.

The Progressive Conservative critic for MLL said removing the U.S. booze from Liquor Marts only hurts the Crown corporation’s bottom line.

“Putting alcohol back in the warehouse doesn’t impact American producers. Manitoba already paid for the product,” Colleen Robbins, the MLA for Spruce Woods, said Thursday.

“When American liquor was returned to the shelf, Manitobans were under the understanding that every dollar of profit from those sales were funding local food banks,” Robbins said in a prepared statement.

“Rather than putting effort into these empty symbolic gestures, this government needs to support and promote local producers,” she said.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe on Wednesday announced his province will slap a 50 per cent retaliatory tariff on U.S. booze sold there starting Sept. 8.

“Given the increased tariffs that the United States of America has put on Canadian and Saskatchewan goods, given the counter tariffs that are in place, we need to protect ourselves,” said Moe, who explained why his province hasn’t removed U.S. alcohol from store shelves.

“Our government has decided throughout this that we want to leave the choice with the people of Saskatchewan.” They were already choosing to buy less alcohol from the U.S., Moe said at a news conference in Prince Albert.

“American alcohol sales in our province are down 40 per cent, and I think that that actually sends a much stronger message than any government ordered ban that could be put in place.”

Earlier this year, Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries data showed Canadian spirit sales rose by nine per cent and wine sales increased by 12 per cent year-over-year in this province.

Moe said the goal of adding a 50 per cent tax on U.S. booze sold in Saskatchewan is to encourage a return to the negotiating table.

“We do, also, need to defend ourselves,” he said.

» Winnipeg Free Press