Absolutely.
As I alluded to earlier in this session, brewers are already dealing with historically high input costs. The number of dollars it costs to produce beer in Canada has risen quite substantially over the last two years. Our message to the government is that brewers are not opposed to paying their fair share of taxes. In Canada, right now, nearly 50% of the retail price of beer is one form of tax or another. What we are opposed to is automatic annual increases that are devoid of any debate or vote by members of Parliament, especially considering the high-inflation environment that we're in right now. These annual increases are indexed to inflation, and what we're dealing with is monthly inflation that is at 6% or 7%. We're looking at an increase in April 2023 of as much as 7% to 8% on beer.
We're at a very challenging time for the industry and also a very challenging time for our big customers in the restaurant and bar business. Our message to the government is to look at the environment we're operating in.
Brewers are also making multi-million-dollar investments to transition away from plastic ring carriers. We support that, and we're doing our part to make sure that the government objective to eliminate plastic waste is reached. We're just asking for this government to revisit this approach to taxation at this point in time.