Obligatory @#$% Doug Ford. There’s not too much to this, imo. Back when it was just the LCBO and Beer Store selling alcohol - a special product if you will - the price on the sales tag included HST and bottle deposit, which is unlike most products, like a bag of chips (price on sales tag doesn’t include HST). I think this price labeling thing is just a bit of house-keeping after Ford changed the alcohol sales framework in Ontario (which will definitely reduce provincial revenue and good jobs and probably contribute to a significant uptick in drunk driving–that’s the real story). If alcohol is now sold in convenience stores alongside chips, why should its price be advertised differently (eg, include HST). So, this is probably to make alcohol more consistent with other products (e.g., there’s a fee added to battery sales that aren’t on price tags) in terms of product price labelling.

More important to me is how long the bottle deposit remains and how long the Beer Store continues to accept bottle and can returns now that they’re essentially another convenience or grocery store