Business
Federal taxes hurting B.C. wineries and craft brewers
From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
By Carson Binda
Trudeau has a habit of saying his government is working to make life more affordable, but tax hikes do just the opposite.
Federal tax hikes are hitting a crucial industry in British Columbia at the worst possible time.
The alcohol industry across B.C. has had a tough couple months. Between forest fires, droughts and cold snaps, wine-growers and craft brewers will have a harder time turning a profit this year. And Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is about to make things even worse.
In April, Trudeau is hiking federal taxes on beer, wine and spirits by almost five per cent. Taxes already account for about half the price you pay for alcoholic beverages. That means every time you buy a bottle of wine or a six-pack of your favourite craft beer, you’re also buying one for the taxman.
To add insult to injury, the tax hike is automatic, meaning our elected MPs won’t vote on the increased taxes on wine and other alcoholic beverages.
Back in 2017, the Trudeau government introduced a tax escalator on alcoholic beverages. The escalator means the taxes on beer, wine, ciders and spirits goes up automatically every year, without a vote in Parliament.
Regardless of your views on alcohol, it’s wrong for the government to hike taxes without letting the democratic process weigh in.
Trudeau shouldn’t be jacking up taxes on a struggling industry, especially not without letting our elected representatives voice their concerns by actually voting on the hike.
Wine growing is an important industry in B.C., with more than 12,000 people across every region of B.C. employed. It creates more than $3.75 billion for the provincial economy. Almost 1.2 million tourists visit B.C. wineries every year. There are 341 separate wineries in our province alone, with hundreds more wineries across the country.
While taxes on B.C. VQA wines are less than the taxes on non-VQA wines, VQA wines only make up around 19 per cent of sales. Local non-VQA wines in B.C. are the most frequent type of wine sold in the province.
Craft beer is also a big driver of the local economy. There are more than 200 craft breweries in B.C. alone, which made almost $230 million in revenue in 2020. Around 4,500 people are employed by craft breweries in B.C. And more than 95 per cent of wineries, breweries, cideries and distillers in B.C. are small businesses.
A majority of the 1,100 craft breweries in Canada are in rural areas where they are important employers. It’s wrong for the small businesses in rural communities to be picking up the bill for big-spending politicians in Ottawa.
Small businesses selling alcoholic beverages are also going to be paying the tab for Trudeau’s tax binge. Think about all the pubs, bars and restaurants that make ends meet by selling beverages to thirsty British Columbians.
Instead of hitting the gems of our provincial economy with automatic tax hikes, we should be supporting those small mom-and-pop brewers and pubs to ensure they can keep employing thousands of British Columbians and pumping billions into our economy.
Credit where credit is due: Some federal politicians like MP Tracy Gray in Kelowna have been vocal in their opposition to the escalator tax. But that’s falling on deaf ears in the prime minister’s office.
Trudeau has a habit of saying his government is working to make life more affordable, but tax hikes do just the opposite.
If Trudeau really wanted to help the little guy get ahead, he wouldn’t be hiking taxes on small businesses and families.
Carson Binda is the B.C. Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
From LifeSiteNews
The Center for Innovative Public Health Research’s website suggests teenage girls make their ‘own decisions’ about sex and not let their parents know if they don’t want to.
For almost a decade, the U.S. government funded a group that actively works to teach kids how to use sex toys and then keep them hidden from their parents to the tune of $22 million.
According to investigative reporter Hannah Grossman at the Manhattan Institute, The Center for Innovative Public Health Research (CIPHR) has been educating minors about sex toys with public funds.
Records show that the millions given to the group since 2016, according to its website, go toward “health education programs” that “promote positive human development.”
However, the actual contents of the programs, as can be seen from comments from CIPHR CEO Michele Ybarra, seem to suggest that its idea of “human” development is skewed toward radical sex education doctrine.
In 2017, CIPHR launched Girl2Girl, which is funded by federal money to promote “sex-ed program just for teen girls who are into girls.” Its website lets users, who are girls between ages 14 and 16, sign up for “daily text messages … about things like sex with girls and boys.”
The actual content of some of the messages is very concerning. Its website notes that some of the texts talk about “lube and sex toys” as well as “the different types of sex and ways to increase pleasure.”
The website actively calls upon teenage girls to make their “own decisions” and not let their parents know if they don’t want to.
Grossman shared a video clip on X of Ybarra explaining how they educate minors about the use of “sex toys” and dealing with their parents if they are found out.
The clip, from a 2022 Brown University webinar, shows Ybarra telling researchers how to prepare “young person(s)” for her research.
She said if they are doing “focus groups,” she will ask them, “Okay, so what happens if somebody comes into the room and sees words like penis and sex toys on your screen — on your computer screen or on your phone? What if it’s your mom?’”
In 2023, CIPHR launched Transcendent Health, which is a sex-education program for minors who are gender confused. This initiative received $1.3 million of federal grant money that expired last month.
Grossman observed that the federal government “should not fund programs that send sexually explicit messages to minors and encourage them to conceal these communications from parents.”
She noted that in order to protect children and “prevent further harm,” U.S. President Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services “should immediately cancel CIPHR’s active contract and deny its future grant applications.”
“By doing so, the Trump administration can send a clear message: Taxpayers will no longer foot the bill for perverted ‘research’ projects,” she noted.
The Trump administration has thus far, through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), exposed billions in government waste and fraud. Many such uses of taxpayer dollars are currently under review by the administration, including pro-abortion and pro-censorship activity through USAID, “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda” through the National Science Foundation, and billions to left-wing “green energy” nonprofits through the Environmental Protection Agency.
Business
Canadian Police Raid Sophisticated Vancouver Fentanyl Labs, But Insist Millions of Pills Not Destined for U.S.
Sam Cooper
Mounties say labs outfitted with high-grade chemistry equipment and a trained chemist reveal transnational crime groups are advancing in technical sophistication and drug production capacity
Amid a growing trade war between Washington and Beijing, Canada—targeted alongside Mexico and China for special tariffs related to Chinese fentanyl supply chains—has dismantled a sophisticated network of fentanyl labs across British Columbia and arrested an academic lab chemist, the RCMP said Thursday.
At a press conference in Vancouver, senior investigators stood behind seized lab equipment and fentanyl supplies, telling reporters the operation had prevented millions of potentially lethal pills from reaching the streets.
“This interdiction has prevented several million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl from being produced and distributed across Canada,” said Cpl. Arash Seyed. But the presence of commercial-grade laboratory equipment at each of the sites—paired with the arrest of a suspect believed to have formal training in chemistry—signals an evolution in the capabilities of organized crime networks, with “progressively enhanced scientific and technical expertise among transnational organized crime groups involved in the production and distribution of illicit drugs,” Seyed added.
This investigation is ongoing, while the seized drugs, precursor chemicals, and other evidence continue to be processed, police said.
Recent Canadian data confirms the country has become an exporter of fentanyl, and experts identify British Columbia as the epicenter of clandestine labs supplied by Chinese precursors and linked to Mexican cartel distributors upstream.
In a statement that appears politically responsive to the evolving Trump trade threats, Assistant Commissioner David Teboul said, “There continues to be no evidence, in this case and others, that these labs are producing fentanyl for exportation into the United States.”
In late March, during coordinated raids across the suburban municipalities of Pitt Meadows, Mission, Aldergrove, Langley, and Richmond, investigators took down three clandestine fentanyl production sites.
The labs were described by the RCMP as “equipped with specialized chemical processing equipment often found in academic and professional research facilities.” Photos released by authorities show stainless steel reaction vessels, industrial filters, and what appear to be commercial-scale tablet presses and drying trays—pointing to mass production capabilities.
The takedown comes as Canada finds itself in the crosshairs of intensifying geopolitical tension.
Fentanyl remains the leading cause of drug-related deaths in Canada, with toxic supply chains increasingly linked to hybrid transnational networks involving Chinese chemical brokers and domestic Canadian producers.
RCMP said the sprawling B.C. lab probe was launched in the summer of 2023, with teams initiating an investigation into the importation of unregulated chemicals and commercial laboratory equipment that could be used for synthesizing illicit drugs including fentanyl, MDMA, and GHB.
The Bureau is a reader-supported publication.
To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Invite your friends and earn rewards
First Good Battlefield News From Trump’s Global War on Fentanyl
Liberals Replace Candidate Embroiled in Election Interference Scandal with Board Member of School Flagged in Canada’s Election Interference Inquiry
FBI imposed Hunter Biden laptop ‘gag order’ after employee accidentally confirmed authenticity: report
Mortgage Mayhem: How Rising Interest Rates Are Squeezing Alberta Homeowners
-
Also Interesting2 days ago
Mortgage Mayhem: How Rising Interest Rates Are Squeezing Alberta Homeowners
-
2025 Federal Election2 days agoConservative Party urges investigation into Carney plan to spend $1 billion on heat pumps
-
Also Interesting2 days agoExploring Wildrobin Technological Advancements in Live Dealer Games
-
2025 Federal Election2 days agoCommunist China helped boost Mark Carney’s image on social media, election watchdog reports
-
2025 Federal Election2 days agoFifty Shades of Mark Carney
-
2025 Federal Election2 days agoCorporate Media Isn’t Reporting on Foreign Interference—It’s Covering for It
-
Business1 day agoStocks soar after Trump suspends tariffs
-
Justice2 days agoCanadian government sued for forcing women to share spaces with ‘transgender’ male prisoners