The launch of a comprehensive Provincial Alcohol Strategy
The provincial government of Prince Edward Island has launched a Provincial Alcohol Strategy “to help PEI residents improve their health, enhance public safety, and reduce alcohol related costs/harms.” The strategy sets out 16 recommendations organized into four priority areas to respond to the province’s mounting costs of alcohol consumption.
According to the report, community engagement and research has supported the production of “evidence-based, practical actions” through its four priority areas which, according to Prince Edward Island chief public health officer Heather Morrison seek “to approach the problem from all angles.” The four priority areas are, preventative service delivery, health public policy, public safety and enforcement, and public awareness which are designed to “complement and strengthen […] other [preexisting] health and safety initiatives.”
Priority Area one seeks to “prevent harmful use of alcohol or to intervene early when it occurs.” Its focus is “screening, brief intervention, and referral for harmful use of alcohol.” This includes a further emphasis on “youth substance prevention programs” and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
The next Priority Area will use healthy public policy to target the $61 million provincial revenue deficit resulting from alcohol related costs. The priority area looks to ensure “that alcohol policies do not encourage the consumption of higher strength or higher volume alcohol products.” This area outlines adjusting social reference pricing, the minimum price of a good set by the government based on consumptive risk, “so it is based directly on alcohol content.” The strategy targets using higher prices to disincentivize consumption of higher strength or volume products.
In another facet of Priority Area two, Prince Edward Island plans to update policy on the density of off-premise alcohol outlets due to the risk incurred by current high density. The report quantifies “Almost 80% of civil addresses are within a 10-minute drive of a Prince Edward Island Liquor Control Commission outlet.” This area also seeks to ensure that “3% of combined net profits from alcohol be allocated to social responsibility initiatives.” These include Mount Steward’s free mocktail nights devised by the rural municipality’s chief administrative officer.
Priority Area three “examine[s] whether current policy, legislative, and program tools are optimally designed and implemented to prevent impaired driving and deter repeat behaviour.” This priority area makes up the bulk of recommendations. This is because while provincial alcohol consumption sits around the national average, CBC News states, “P.E.I.’s impaired driving rates are nearly three times the national average.”
Public Awareness, the final priority area, will “review marketing and advertizing in settings frequented by children and youth.” Public Awareness will also look to “increase awareness on standard drink information.” Furthermore, to allow for continual engagement with policy, the area will implement a “public-facing complaints system.”
Prince Edward Island health and wellness minister Cory Deagle commented on the need for the Provincial Alcohol Strategy, saying, “alcohol harms are too high, impacting families, community safety, and putting strain on our health system.” Deagle noted, “by strengthening prevention and modernizing policy, we are taking meaningful steps to reduce those harms.”
The strategy outlines how one in three islanders “consume alcohol at a level considered high risk for serious health issues” and that “PEI leads all provinces in police reported impaired driving rates.”
The strategy has been devised in accordance with three rounds of community engagement sessions undertaken by the Chief Public Health Office between 2021 and 2026. The Office has engaged community organizations, the general public, and government departments agencies, boards and commissions through surveys, engagement sessions, and “Alcohol Policy Forums.”
The strategy’s priority areas seeks to get ahead of identified “areas for improvement,” which are “pricing based on alcohol content, off-premise density policies, stronger impaired driving countermeasures, and enforcement of marketing and [advertising] rules.” The publication is leading the way for Canada in provincial alcohol strategies. Adam Sherk, co-author of Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health said to CBC that while provinces like British Columbia and Saskatchewan have their own policies, they are “a little softer and not as directive.” The strategy is going to be important for the province. In the same article, emergency department doctor Trevor Jain said, “Public health grabbing this by the horns… is going to help a lot of people.” Jain added, “It falls within that preventative medicine kind of matrix, and I think it will be extremely helpful to our local community.”