The Ontario Government is, once again, investigating the potential sale price of the LCBO and Hydro One (other Crown Corporations are part of this but none are as interesting).

The Globe and Mail had a great article talking about the way the province is going about the process…both now and in the past.

The article mentions a possible sale price of $10B for the LCBO! That would be a great chunk of change for the province but would be VERY difficult as the Globe points out:

Any plan to sell Crown corporations that touch the lives of every Ontario voter would likely run into opposition on a number of fronts, including from unionized employees. In 2001, Ontario’s then-Conservative government planned a $5-billion initial public offering of Hydro One, which owns many of the power lines crisscrossing Ontario, but that was derailed, in part by a union-backed court challenge.

The article goes on to mention how parts of  HyroOne could be sold off to get around the union-backed problems. But there was no suggestion about what to do with the LCBO…here is my suggestion.

Since moving to Ontario five years ago, the ‘privatize LCBO’ debate has always been an ‘all-or-nothing’ discussion. My question has always been: “WHY?” Like the Globe mentioned in their article “lets sell off some parts”.  Maybe sell off 30 LCBO stores (about 5%) around the province as a test! Or better yet, leave all the LCBOs private but sell off ‘private liquor store licenses’ this won’t raise $10B but could easily bring in $500M! And would bring the money in FAST!

So, lets change the discussion, the LCBO discussion should no longer be:

To privatize or not to privatize

Instead it should be:

One small step for provincial coffers, one giant leap for Ontario consumers!

Over the next three-five years something has to give with regards to the LCBO…lets hope the government listens to the public.