Sin spending: The price of Canadian vices

So-called “sin taxes” are those added to products or services that are considered vices, things like alcohol, tobacco, and gambling. They’re a form of excise tax, and according to Chartered Professional Accountants Canada, the average Canadian family spends $1,700 on excise taxes, primarily those on liquor and cigarettes.

So if people are paying the equivalent of a mortgage payment on just sin taxes, how much are their actual vices costing them?

Alcohol

Canadians spent $21.4 billion on booze in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013, according to a recent Statistics Canada report. It also found that sales from beer and liquor stores rose 2.2 per cent from the year before.

Beer was the drink of choice for Canadians, with $9.1 billion in sales. In terms of volume sold, we bought 2.3 billion litres of beer in 2013. The market share of wine continued to grow, however, with red wine proving more popular than white.

People in Ontario spent the most on beer, wine, and liquor, totalling about $7.5 million, followed by Quebec and British Columbia.

The average Canadian household spent $1,274 on alcohol and tobacco products in 2012, according to Statistics Canada.

Cigarettes

Canadians spent $31.1 billion on cigarettes, according to the most recent data from Health Canada.

Smokers like to score deals where they can. According to Health Canada’s Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey for 2012, 48 per cent of smokers aged 15 and up purchased discount-brand cigarettes at retail, 13 per bought cigarettes from a First Nations Reserve, and 1 per cent said they purchased cigarettes that may have been smuggled. Some smokers reported more than one source.

With the federal government hiking taxes on cigarettes in its most recent budget, chances are contraband smokes are going to be even more sought-after.

Higher excise taxes on tobacco will raise the price of a carton of 200 cigarettes by $4 and by $6 for a carton of smokes sold at duty free stores. The increase will reap government $685 million in 2014-15.

Gambling

Canadians lost a staggering $13.74 billion in 2010 on government-run lotteries, video lottery terminals (VLTs), casinos, and slot machines found outside of casinos, according to Statistics Canada.

The average gambling revenue per person in 2009 ranged from $120 in the territories to $855 in Saskatchewan, with the national average being $515.

About 6 in 10 Canadians living alone reported spending money on at least one gambling activity; however, men spent almost twice as much on average as women—$615 compared with $335.

The greater the household income, the more likely people were to try their luck. Forty-six per cent of households with incomes of less than $20,000 gambled in 2009, spending an average of $390. Meanwhile, 75 per cent of households with incomes of $80,000 or more gambled, with average spending being $620.

Sex

Stats related to how much Canadians spend on prostitutes, escorts, porn, and other sex-related products or services are scarce, and you’ve got to question just how accurate they’d be in the first place.

Nevertheless, a couple of numbers exist. According to Family Safe Media, porn revenues in Canada totalled $1 billion in 2006. That works out to about $30 per person. That same organization states that worldwide, $3,075 is spent on porn every second.

Also, some Canadian cities spend more on sex toys than others. According to PinkCherry Adult Toys, Victoria, Grande Prairie, Alta. and Fredericton ordered toys, adult novelties, and lingerie the greatest number of times per capita via its website.

Drugs

The global drug trade is worth an estimated $350 billion per year, but luck getting a clear picture on how much Canadians spend on illicit substances.

In British Columbia alone, research suggests the pot industry is worth between $443 million and $564 million per year based on the consumption rate of 366,000 people.

A research paper by Simon Fraser University published in the International Journal of Drug Policy in 2012 found that legalizing marijuana in B.C. could generate $2.5 billion in government tax and licensing revenues over five years, based on a domestic provincial market of more than 400,000 annual consumers.

A separate draft policy paper from the B.C. branch of the Liberal Party suggest government revenue could be as high as $4 billion annually, based on consumption of three million consumers per year.