Your Petes might be missing out on some good stuff
You know, here's the thing about Peterborough – we’re not a big city, but we still feel the ripples from what happens downriver. Sometimes those ripples are about federal housing policy, or provincial funding. And sometimes, they’re about a whole lot of booze sitting in a warehouse, costing us an arm and a leg just to keep it there. I’m talking about this wild situation with Ontario’s $79.1 million stockpile of delisted U.S. alcohol. It could be costing us up to $20 million *a year* just to store it. Think about that for a minute.
### The Niagara of Unused Spirits
So, the province decided to delist a bunch of American alcohol products. Fair enough, that’s their call. But now, we've got this massive inventory that's just... sitting there. An operations management expert is saying the storage costs could hit $20 million annually. That’s a lot of money flowing out for something that's just taking up space. It reminds me a bit of when the water levels are high on the Otonabee and the Lift Lock has to work overtime just to keep things moving. We’re paying for storage, not for consumption, and that just feels backward.
What this means for us here in the Electric City:
* **Opportunity Cost:** Imagine what even a fraction of that $20 million could do for local initiatives. Think about supporting the Canadian Canoe Museum, or getting more programming at Del Crary Park, or even just fixing some of those potholes on George Street. * **The Cottage Economy Connection:** A lot of that delisted stuff likely would've ended up in coolers headed for the Kawarthas. Now it's just gathering dust, while folks are still buying up what they can find. It’s a strange damming of a consumer flow. * **Our Local LCBOs:** While our local shops might not be directly impacted by the storage, it's a provincial decision that affects the entire system. And eventually, these costs trickle down.
It’s just another example of how decisions made in Queen's Park can have this strange, almost philosophical, impact on the everyday realities of life here. This is the Electric City — small town, big current. Let's go.
For more on how this all flows, catch the crew on the morning show at mornings.live.