On Home Delivery and Bureaucracy

Unless they alter their course, and there’s no reason why they should, they’ll reach your plantation in two days at the latest.

A little while ago, I heard news of a neat service in Ottawa.  Beau’s Brewing had organized a cool delivery program for their products.  As Beau’s seems always to do, it was a savvy plan, benefitting everybody: the brewery, the customer and the community.  Don’t believe me?  Here you go:  Beau’s partnered with Operation Come Home, a group that works with at risk youth in the Ottawa area, providing them with training and options for work, to help them make a future for themselves.  They have worked together in the past, so it was a natural pairing.  The plan was, OCH would train a few drivers to deliver products, including beer, from the Beau’s brewery, to a fair distribution area in Ottawa.  OCH did the leg-work of getting a delivery license from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (the folks who issue all alcohol permits in the province).  Note this point, please.  They had applied and been approved by the AGCO.  As in, the AGCO had reviewed their application, considered it in light of their own policies and the law of the province, and issued them a license.  I know this sounds redundant, but it will be important later.  So, starting yesterday, a customer in a certain area around Ottawa, was able to go online, purchase things from Beau’s online store (both merchandise and beer) and have it delivered to their home.  There was a $15 surcharge for the service, part of which is required by the province, but all of which went back to OCH, to continue their work in the community (they could only issue tax receipts for $8.25 of the amount, the rest was considered a cost of delivery).

Sounds good right?  I mean, what could you have against this?  It’s a wonderful charitable plan, where everyone wins.

Steve and Tim Beauchesne - Father & Son owners of Beau's Brewing Co.

Except it annoyed someone.  The day of the program’s launch, a complaint came in to the AGCO from an un-named brewery.  As such, the AGCO will no longer allow the deliveries. It noted that the delivery license said beer had to be purchased at the LCBO or the Beer Store.  The fact that the LCBO authorizes breweries and wineries to sell their own products from a retail store seems to cut no dice with the AGCO.  Except it apparently did at first, until “somebody” complained. You see, it’s only been in recent years that alcohol sales from breweries and wineries has really flourished.  The “Special Occasion Permit” does allow licensees to purchase alcohol directly from a brewery or winery, so it was assumed the lack of reference to them in the delivery license was a throw-back to the days before the popularity of local sales.  In fact, it very likely is.  Having made this complaint is clearly an effort to find a loophole to prevent Beau’s from doing this, which of course, means the complaining brewery was doing it to hurt Beau’s, not protect the alcohol-purchasers of Ontario. The fact that a decent local charity is getting hurt worse in the process doesn’t seem to bother the brewery in question.  They have spent money training the would-be drivers, going through the application process and a variety of other administrative costs.  Now they are not only losing the potential added income, they are out what they invested in good faith.

Now, there is no point speculating who would lodge such a complaint.  And in fact, it’s unnecessary, as if (let’s be honest here, when) OCH appeals, the full details of the complaint, including who made it, will be forwarded to them.

And here lies the real crux.  Shortly, they will know exactly who decided to shut down a wonderful charitable system.  I’m guessing/hoping they will go public with this, and shame whoever it is.  Because shame is the only appropriate feeling here.  Believe me, if I hear who made the complaint, there is no expletive I will not use in describing them, privately and publicly.  Everyone from bloggers up to the Ottawa Citizen will scream bloody murder.  I do hope the party in question has a good PR firm at hand.

In the meantime, we need to support Operation Come Home how we can.  So, why not head over to their site and make a donation? You can do that here: http://www.operationcomehome.ca/donations.html. $15 dollars is a good start, as it was the figure some brewery somewhere felt OCH didn’t deserve.  $25 gets you a tax receipt, and having worked with charities, I can promise you, they would not complain if you added a few zeroes to the right side of that figure.  OCH also accepts donations of “stuff” for their drop-in and resource centres.  If you’re in the Ottawa area, check the list here: http://www.operationcomehome.ca/howtohelp.html and pitch in.

The other way you can lend help, is to contact your MPP, and ask them to take up the cause.  Here’s the list of current MPPs in Ontario.  Find yours and drop them an email. http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/members/members_current.do?locale=en. Tell them you are shocked and disgusted with the AGCO decision to remove a key income source for a charity.  Tell them you are ashamed of the Ontario Government and what appears to be pandering action to big breweries over local business and small charities.  Tell them this is unacceptable, and it needs to be changed.  And don’t forget to thank them for their service to you and your community.  Your MPP did not make this decision, and probably does not support it.  They are on our side.

If you want to read more about it, doing a Google news search already is turning up a few hits. You can read Beau’s official press release below, and Steve Beauchesne’s blog post about it here: http://beausbeer.blogspot.com/2011/11/grinch-who-stole-your-christmas-beer.html

Now they thronged around him, one question in every face. Would he recover? “He won’t die,” said the old man who had bandaged him, “if he doesn’t want to.”

The planter opened his eyes. “Everything in order?” he asked.

“They’re gone,” said his nurse. “To hell.” He held out to his master a gourd full of a powerful sleeping draught. Leiningen gulped it down.

“I told you I’d come back,” he murmured, “even if I am a bit streamlined.” He grinned and shut his eyes. He slept.

Beau’s Press Release