Federal and provincial governments earned $15.5 billion (-2.0%) from the control and sale of alcohol ($13.1 billion; -4.2%) and recreational cannabis ($2.5 billion; +11.5%) in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025. This includes net income from provincial liquor and cannabis authorities, excise taxes, retail sales taxes, other specific taxes, and licences and permits, according to a report released Thursday by Statistics Canada.
The decline in alcohol earnings in 2024/2025 was the largest annual decrease since Statistics Canada began tracking this series in 2004/2005.
“Overall, liquor authorities and other retail outlets sold $25.8 billion worth of alcoholic beverages in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, down 1.6% from fiscal year 2023/2024. The decrease in alcohol sales occurred despite a 1.6% increase in the price of alcoholic beverages in stores from March 2024 to March 2025,” said Statistics Canada.
“On a volume basis, sales of alcohol declined by 3.0% to 2,898 million litres in 2024/2025. This was the fourth consecutive year volume sales have declined. On average, Canadians of legal drinking age purchased the equivalent of 8.0 standard alcoholic beverages per week in 2024/2025, down from 8.7 the previous fiscal year and 9.7 a decade ago.
“In 2024/2025, domestic products represented 60.6% of total alcohol sales in Canada, up from 59.0% the previous fiscal year.
“By beverage type, 88.7% of beer sales and 90.7% of cider and cooler sales were from domestic products. In comparison, domestic products accounted for 46.7% of sales of spirits and 30.0% of wine sales.
“The share of domestic alcohol sales increased across all beverage categories in 2024/2025.”
The total value of beer sales by liquor stores, agencies and other retail outlets dropped 1.6% to $9.1 billion in the 2024/2025 fiscal year. Beer maintained its position as the top selling beverage category in 2024/2025; its market share was unchanged from a year earlier at just over one-third (35.1%) of total sales, said the federal agency.
Wine (-0.2 percentage points to 29.7%) and spirits (-0.4 percentage points to 25.8%) lost market share on lower sales in 2024/2025. Ciders and coolers was the lone beverage category to gain market share, up 0.6 percentage points, although they continued to represent the smallest share of total sales at 9.3%, it added.
“By volume, beer sales declined 3.8% to 1,876 million litres in 2024/2025, the ninth consecutive annual decline in beer sales by volume. Beer sales were equivalent to 3.1 standard bottles of beer per week, per person of legal drinking age. Wine sales fell 2.2% to $7.7 billion in 2024/2025, driven by a decline in imported wine sales (-3.9%). Imported wine accounted for 70.0% of total wine sales. This was the first time imported wine sales have decreased since Statistics Canada began tracking alcohol sales by origin in 1992/1993,” explained the report.
“Domestic wine sales were stable, increasing 1.9% to $2.3 billion. Wine sales by volume totalled 460 million litres, marking the fourth consecutive year of decline. The total litres of wine sold in 2024/2025 was equivalent to approximately 1.9 standard glasses per week for each person of legal drinking age.”
Statistics Canada said sales of recreational cannabis by provincial cannabis authorities and other retail outlets increased 6.1% or $0.3 billion from the previous fiscal year to $5.5 billion in 2024/2025. Nevertheless, this was a marked slowdown from the sales increases in 2023/2024 (+11.6%) and 2022/2023 (+15.8%). The price of recreational cannabis decreased 1.1% from March 2024 to March 2025.
“Inhaled extracts was the fastest growing recreational cannabis category in 2024/2025, up 12.8%. The market share of inhaled extracts continued to increase in 2024/2025, up to almost one-third of total sales (31.1%). Solid cannabis edibles (-2.2%) was the lone cannabis category with a sales decline in 2024/2025,” it said.
“Cannabis sales in 2024/2025 were equivalent to $167 per person of legal age to consume cannabis. Yukon ($384) had the highest sales per person, while Quebec ($105) had the lowest. Quebec’s lower sales partly reflect restrictions in effect during the fiscal year, including a ban on cannabis vaping products and topicals, as well as limited edible offerings.”
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