{"id":82197,"date":"2025-08-19T22:08:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T22:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/82197\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T22:08:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T22:08:13","slug":"ontario-small-town-concerned-as-string-of-beer-store-closures-raise-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/82197\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario small town \u2018concerned\u2019 as string of Beer Store closures raise questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Alan MacNevin was in Ottawa for a municipal conference when he found out the Beer Store<\/a> in his small town had been slated for closure.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNormally, I would be in Little Current<\/a> and probably having those conversations, but I think as the day goes on, they\u2019ll be emailing and texting to talk about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

MacNevin is the mayor of Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands, which includes the small town of Little Current. With a population of roughly 1,200 people, it is situated beside the Highway 6 bridge onto Manitoulin Island.<\/p>\n

The Beer Store announced Monday that 12 more of its locations would close in response to liberalized alcohol sales rules and the challenges of a \u201cchanging marketplace,\u201d including its Little Current store.<\/p>\n

That location is one of only four places in town that sell alcohol, and is a popular place for tourists to stop and pick up drinks on their way to camp or visit the cottage for a weekend.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also where they stop at the end of a weekend to recycle and collect the deposit for used cans and bottles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a high-volume place for people that are coming for a holiday to pick up beverages from The Beer Store,\u201d MacNevin said. \u201cPlus, as well, we\u2019re concerned about the fact that returning your bottles is going to become an issue because there aren\u2019t places (nearby) that currently accept returns.\u201d<\/p>\n

A map maintained by the Ontario government suggests the nearest location to return empties would be either a 25-minute drive down to Manitowaning or 32 minutes the other way to Mindemoya. Both are small communities on Manitoulin Island.<\/p>\n

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McNever worries that more cans will end up in landfill and the community will lose an important source of employment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are permanent jobs that are going to disappear from those locations as well as summer student jobs and part-timers who work there,\u201d he said. \u201cI know there\u2019s already a bit of a wave being created on Facebook about the issue \u2014 people are surprised and in shock.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOntario keeps paying Beer Store agreement as alcohol revenue falls\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The closure of the Beer Store in Little Current will take place on Oct. 19, according to the corporation.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s the latest in a steady string of announcements from The Beer Store \u2014 owned by Molson, Labatt and Sleeman \u2014 and takes the number of closures into triple digits over the past year.<\/p>\n

The closures began after the Ford government announced it would allow convenience, grocery and big box stores to sell alcohol, giving The Beer Store up to $225 million to break its exclusive retail contract.<\/p>\n

Under the agreement, The Beer Store must keep at least 300 locations open until the end of this year. After that, it can close as many stores as it chooses.<\/p>\n

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The Beer Store has repeatedly refused to say how many stores it has closed so far and how many it plans to shutter by the end of the year. It has also declined to say if it will close every storefront next year.<\/p>\n

Calculations by Global News based on public announcements and information from The Beer Store\u2019s union show the latest raft of closures will take the total to more than 100 since the Ford government announced its payment to the retailer.<\/p>\n

While some of the closures have been in Toronto, London or other major cities, The Beer Store has also chosen to close a number of stores in smaller or remote communities.<\/p>\n

Places like Sioux Lookout, Deep River and Ridgetown have been included on recent closure lists.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI guess a lot of small communities thought there was going to be an exemption from some of these closures, but I guess The Beer Store is restructuring in some way to save costs,\u201d MacNevin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of things like events or weddings, they get their alcohol from The Beer Store in terms of that product. It will be interesting to see how they\u2019ll be able to manoeuvre that because the LCBO sells very limited supply of beer \u2026 so, it\u2019s going to have an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Beer Store locations set to close on Oct. 19 are:<\/p>\n

Bridgenorth \u2014 882 Ward St., Bridgenorth, Ont., K0L 1H0Eganville \u2014 8647 Hwy. 60, Eganville, Ont., K0J 1T0Forest \u2014 89 Main St. S., Forest, Ont., N0N 1J0Grand Bend \u2014 21 Ontario St. N., Grand Bend, Ont., N0M 1T0Harrow \u2014 398 King St. W., PO Box 249, Harrow, Ont., N0R 1G0Little Current \u2014 53 Meredith St. E., PO Box 210, Little Current, Ont., P0P 1K0Markdale \u2014 33 Argyle St., Markdale, Ont., N0C 1H0No\u00eblville \u2014 142 David St. N., No\u00eblville, Ont., P0M 2N0North York \u2014 3078 Don Mills Rd., Toronto, M2J 3C1Sauble Beach \u2014 704 Main St., Sauble Beach, Ont., N0H 1P0Toronto \u2014 900A Don Mills Rd., Unit #100, Toronto, M3C 1V6Toronto \u2014 800 Gerrard St. E., Toronto, M4M 1Y7\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Alan MacNevin was in Ottawa for a municipal conference when he found out the Beer Store in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[49395,45,49,48,49396,49397,13404,714],"class_list":["post-82197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-beer-store","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-little-current","tag-ontario-alcohol","tag-ontario-politics","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}