The list of small Ontario towns without The Beer Store has been getting longer — Haliburton, Bala, and Gananoque, to name just a few.
They are part of the more than 130 closures of retail stores made by the private company throughout the province in the wake of legislation that expanded alcohol sales to grocery and convenience stores.
But the closures mean more than just the dilution of a venerable brand once owned by Canadian brewing companies — it means consumers are travelling further to return their used bottles and cans.
That has some critics questioning whether Ontarians are getting their money’s worth when it comes to the 10- and 20-cent deposits we pay on alcohol.
“This is the beginning of the slow erosion of the deposit system in Ontario,” said Clarissa Morawski, the CEO of Reloop, a global non-profit that advocates for a circular economy. “I think it’s an absolute crisis.”
The Beer Store, now owned by multinational corporations, has been managing Ontario’s alcohol deposit return program (ODRP) through retail stores and return depots since 2007.
The program was started by the provincial Liberal government of the day that asked the The Beer Store to expand its in-house deposit program, which it had run for decades, to more than just beer empties to keep alcohol containers from going to landfills.
But when the Ford government expanded sales of beer, wine, cider and coolers to grocers and convenience stores in 2024, The Beer Store started closing stores, which was allowed as part of the current deal with the province — as long as 300 stores remained open through to January of this year.
Grocery stores that sold alcohol were supposed to fill the breach. Instead of setting up their own return programs by January of this year, stores that wanted to continue selling alcohol entered into an 11th-hour deal with The Beer Store, which agreed to take returns on behalf of grocers.
Critics say the deal runs counter to the spirit of a deposit system, which is meant to make it as convenient for consumers to return empty containers as it is to buy them.
“If you can’t get it back,” Morawski says of the containers, “it’s a tax.”
There are about 25,159 beverage alcohol sales locations in the province including wineries, craft brewers, LCBOs, convenience and grocery stores, as well as The Beer Store, according to a report on Ontario’s alcohol deposit program from 2024.
That number is considerably more than the 1,212 locations in Ontario that The Beer Store says accept empty alcohol containers and return deposits, a figure that appears to include nearly 400 hundred independent breweries that only accept their own empties, if at all, according to the same report.
The Beer Store, though, said it stands by that number and refused to provide any more information or a breakdown of those 1,212 return locations.
“Today, more than 90 per cent of grocery stores licensed to sell alcohol are located within five kilometres of a deposit return location,” said Ozzie Ahmed, The Beer Store vice-president of retail, “whether that is a Beer Store retail outlet or an authorized return dealer.”
He noted the company is continuing to “evaluate accessibility” and “actively seeking partners to enhance coverage.”
Ahmed said his company is “fully committed to ensuring Ontarians can conveniently return their empty alcohol containers.”
Grocers will now pay 17 cents on every beer container they sell to The Beer Store as part of the ODRP, according to details of the confidential deal released when it was first reported in November. They will not be charged for wine bottle sales.
However, that didn’t necessarily satisfy the big grocery chains that are represented by the Retail Council of Canada, which has been jockeying for empties to go in the Blue Box, now managed and paid for entirely by companies and brands and not by municipalities, which used to share the cost.
“Ontario’s January 2026 blue box transition was a missed opportunity to cut alcohol deposit costs for customers during an affordability crisis and give every Ontarian the convenience of curbside recycling,” said Michael Zabaneh, vice president of sustainability for the retail council, in an email. “Instead, customers are forced to return empties to places like The Beer Store, even as its footprint continues to shrink.”
The deal with grocers also requires The Beer Store to ensure there is a recycling location available within 10 kilometres of 85 per cent of Ontario’s population, a distance The Beer Store did not explain how it arrived at.
That stipulation appears to allow the company to close stores in remote areas where fewer people live, which means consumers are often travelling to nearby towns to return empties.
“I have a cottage in the woods in Cobokonk and our beer store closed,” said Morawski. The town is in Kawartha Lakes at the northern tip of Balsam Lake.
“Now we have to drive 30 minutes to return any bottles.”
Ahmed, of The Beer Store, said any suggestion that the ODRP is in decline is not supported by the data, which he said shows that return volumes remain high.
But Karen Wirsig, a senior program manager with the non-profit Environmental Defence, said she believes that won’t be the case going forward.
“We will be seeing return rates drop as people have fewer options for taking their containers back,” said Wirsig. “And what’s happening with that money? We’re paying those deposits.”
In December, Environmental Defence sent a letter to Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy making a number of recommendations including more transparency and public accountability related to ODRP. Environmental Defence also suggested unredeemed deposits be used to increase return locations, particularly in urban areas and in rural communities where Beer Stores have closed.
Meanwhile, the union representing The Beer Store employees said in an email that its members feel betrayed by the provincial government’s expansion of alcohol sales.
“There was no need for it. People were not complaining they couldn’t find a beer,” said John Nock, president of UFCW Canada Local 12R24, which represents beer store employees.
Nock said 100 employees have taken early exit opportunities negotiated by the union. There have also been thousands of lost part-time hours, said Nock.
With around 300 stores left, Nock said he is “optimistic that grocery stores paying not to take empties back will help reduce or stop further store closures.
“But it’s too late for many areas of the province, mostly in the north.”
