Projects & Research Partnerships

Introduction

This project was a collaboration between the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group (SARG), the Centre for Addictions Research of BC at the University of Victoria (CARBC) and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) at the University of Toronto.

The aim of the project was to adapt the Sheffield Alcohol Policy Model Version 2 to two Canadian provinces, using provincial or Canada specific data wherever possible, in order to derive estimates of the expected changes in harmful outcome that would result from alternative pricing policies that were available to provincial governments.

The potential policies included setting minimum prices related to the alcohol content, and overall relative price increases, for example a province-wide increase of 10%.

Research questions

The following policies and outcomes were prioritised for analysis:

1. How would setting a minimum pricing threshold of $1.50 per Canadian standard drink (17.05 mL ethanol) impact on the burden of disease and injury from alcohol in Ontario and British Columbia?
2. How quickly does policy effectiveness increase up-to and beyond the case study threshold of $1.50 per standard drink in terms of the burden of disease and injury from alcohol in Ontario and British Columbia?
3. How would a policy of a minimum price per standard drink compare with overall relative price increases, for example a 10% price rise, in terms of their effects on negative outcomes?
4. What, if any, would be the differences in policy impacts between the Canadian provinces of Ontario and British Columbia?