We're drinking a lot more alcohol during COVID, study says

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - A new University of Victoria study found that British Columbians drank more alcohol during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic than they have in the past 20 years.

The adult population drank the equivalent to 547 cans of beer or 104 bottles of wine in one year

The heaviest drinkers were in the Interior, but the second highest levels of consumption were on Vancouver Island.

“The story is partly COVID, but it's not just COVID. There's been a spike. On top of what I like to say is a steady hill of increases in consumption, dating back to about the year 2000 and particularly since about 2010. Since then, we've seen a 10% increase in average, per capita consumption,” said Dr. Tim Naimi, director of the University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (CISUR).

“If we look at British Columbia generally compared to the rest of Canada, We have a higher alcohol consumption than the rest of Canada, somewhere, about 20% higher. A lot of people have said, well, that's just because a lot of tourists come to BC and then they drink alcohol and that's recorded as sales in the province, even though not all of it is being consumed by people who actually live in the province.

“Why this trend is important is that there was less tourism during this year ending in March of 2021. So maybe this is actually a more accurate reflection of what the province actually consumes.”

Naimi said that, as a result of COVID restrictions, 80% of alcohol purchases are made at take-out outlets like liquor stores.

Cortes Currents checked with two outlets on the island, to see if they are selling more liquor.

Curt Cunningham, owner/manager of the Squirrel cove General store said his liquor sales were up 35% in 2021.

There is both a restaurant and a general store at the Gorge Harbour Marina Resort. If they follow the pattern seen in Dr Naimi’s study, liquor sales at the Floathouse Restaurant were probably down, but those at the store were up.

The manager, Bill Dougan,“We saw a jump in liquor sales 20%  for the last year but it has tapered off . Our liquor sales are still up from last year but barely. I would attribute the slight increase to more customers and guests. 
COVID gave us a permanent bump in sales,  in the off season and during peak times. There are more people on island again this winter and the property here has over 20 people living on property.”

Cortes Currents asked Dr Naimi if the increase in liquor consumption could be because people are more isolated, they can’t do a lot of things that used to be part of their normal lives? Are some people drinking more because they are bored?

“ I think that's a factor, but I also think there are other factors at play,” said Naimi.

He pointed to the modernization of BC’s Liquor policy which started in 2013/14:

“We've had big changes in policies around home deliveries, pick up from restaurants, and take away from restaurants. Never in the history of British Columbia have British Colombians been able to access alcohol from so many places in so many different ways at so many hours of the day and night.”

Few of these changes are observable on Cortes, but there are more people on the island since the pandemic began and a lot more residents are shopping locally instead of heading off to the big stores Campbell River, elsewhere on Vancouver Island or even the Lower Mainland.

Naimi agreed that if there is no up to date census data, Cortes could see seeing an artificial bump in its perceived consumption records.

“That's why I always tell people, take the local data with a grain of salt because there's influxes and fluxes of people and travelers, and even home production that may differ from in these different areas. This report, which we do on an annual basis is measuring it's called per capita alcohol consumption and all that means,” he said.