Rich Coleman didn't have much of a choice but to come up to Prince George Monday and personally reassure the community and Pacific Western Brewery employees that he's not going to make the Prince George beermaker a victim of its own success.
Coleman was all set to rejig the tax rates for small and medium-sized B.C. breweries like PWB and Okanagan Spring in Vernon, to allow them to continue to expand their business, without suddenly reaching a level of production (160,000 hectalitres or about the contents of nearly seven Olympic-sized swimming pools) and then jumping abruptly to the top tax rate paid by the big boys at Molson-Coors and Labatt.
Then, everything went south.
Lower Mainland media suddenly had a story about a donation made by PWB to a B.C. Liberals fundraising dinner, with outraged comments from the big breweries that Coleman was giving preferential treatment to business pals.
In our sister paper the Victoria Times Colonist, Iain Hunter indignantly called the situation another example of the political corruption in this province.
Tempest, meet teapot.
One headline exposed the ridiculousness of it - "Brewery that backed Liberals stands to gain from liquor tax change."
Let's back up the bus right here.
No laws were broken and nobody slipped Coleman a brown paper bag with cash in it. PWB and Komatsu have donated generously to the B.C. Liberals but there is nothing wrong with making a donation to a political party. Heading into a provincial election next May, both the Liberals and the NDP are working hard to build up a war chest of cash to fund the battle ahead.
Businesses and wealthy donors often kick in money for both political parties but they're not buying political favours, they're buying access. These companies and their leaders want to be invited to future fundraising events and black-tie dinners so they can have a few seconds of schmoozing to either introduce themselves and their business to the top political leaders or to say hello again and say thanks or give them hell about how newly passed or proposed legislation is helping or hurting their business or cause.
Sometimes, lobbyists and communications specialists are hired to work the bureaucrats within the ministry, right up to the deputy minister level, to keep the message top-of-mind that things like a progressive tax rate for growing B.C. breweries is good for business.
Let's connect the dots here.
The business community is, by and large, supportive of the right-of-centre Liberals, in the way trade unions are largely supportive of the left-of-centre NDP. Therefore, businesses tend to donate more to the Liberals than the NDP and unions give more to the NDP than the Liberals.
PWB benefitting from Coleman refitting the tax structure to make the tax increase more gradual as they expand production doesn't just benefit Komatsu, the owner of PWB for the last 21 years, but the dozens of employees at the brewery on the Nechako River.
Those people are our neighbours and our friends.
They do not work for some charity case in need of a handout from government because of incompetence. They work for a profitable and growing company that needed a tax regime that encourages them to stay on that upward track.
To borrow from PWB's own marketing campaign, here's a thumbs up to Coleman for doing the right thing, despite the nattering naybobs of negativity, and for PWB for showing that a company based in Prince George can carve out its own recipe for success.
