Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation

 
A blue map of Canada with red lettergrades on each province and territory representing alcohol policy scores
Alcohol policy scores across Canadian jurisdictions from the 2019 CAPE Project

The Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation (CAPE), which has a track record of strengthening Canada’s response to alcohol-related harm, is an ongoing project that systematically evaluates the degree of implementation of provincial, territorial, and federal alcohol policies under 11 evidence-based alcohol policy domains.

CAPE was initially developed and implemented in 2013 (CAPE 1.0), and then updated, refined, and expanded in 2019 (CAPE 2.0). The next round (CAPE 3.0) will be launched in 2022 alongside a national alcohol policy community of practice.

Join the CAPE Community of Practice.

Give your input on the upcoming CAPE 3.0!

Rejoindre la Communauté de Practique de l'ÉPCA.

Partagez vos commentaires sur le projet de l’ÉPCA 3.0!

Background

The Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation Community of Practice (CAPE CoP) was developed as an accompaniment to the broader CAPE project, which is an ongoing assessment of alcohol policy across Canadian provinces, territories, and the federal government.

The CAPE CoP aims to establish a national alcohol policy community which builds and sustains long-term connections, collaborations, and professional development between diverse stakeholders, and increases both awareness and knowledge of emerging alcohol-related research and policies through a range of different mobilization activities and events.

The CAPE CoP is funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Connection Grant, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Health Canada's Substance Use and Addictions Program.

The CAPE CoP is comprised primarily of a national email listserv, policy forums, roundtable discussions, research presentations, and capacity-building sessions related to alcohol policy.

How To Join

Fill out our member registration form and offer some initial thoughts and ideas on what the CoP activities and events should include. You will receive a listserv notification and welcome email once your membership is confirmed. There are no membership fees to join. If you have questions, please email .

Rejoindre la Communauté de Practique de l'ÉPCA

Frequently Asked Questions

Are there membership fees to join the CAPE community of practice?

The CAPE CoP is free! There are no fees to join as a member or for any of the events. In fact, for anyone who identifies as an individual with lived/living experience or as Indigenous we have honoraria available for their time.

What is involved in being a member of the CAPE community of practice?

The CAPE CoP allows you to be as involved as you’d like. You can pick and choose what events you want to attend and whether or not you want to received emails from the CAPE CoP listserv. The degree to which you choose to participate in the CAPE CoP is up to you. Please feel free to attend and/or participate in any event you feel would be beneficial to the work that you do.

How do I find out what’s happening with the CAPE community of practice?

To receive information on future CAPE CoP events you need to be a CAPE CoP member. While CoP members will get glimpses of the CAPE project as we progress, the CAPE CoP is meant to serve a greater purpose of bringing together individuals interested in alcohol policy in Canada for discussion and collaboration. When it comes time to present the findings of the CAPE 3.0 project, we will be disseminating the invites to the presentations more broadly beyond the CAPE CoP.

If I join the community of practice, do I automatically have to validate data for the larger CAPE project?

CAPE CoP members are under no obligation to provide data or validate data for the CAPE team. The CAPE data validation contacts are recruited separately through our contacts in government departments and would be independent of your involvement in the CAPE CoP.  If applicable, the separate role of data validator is also not very time consuming. It sometimes involves assisting us track down the correct policy data, but our team is mostly familiar with this now that we have done CAPE twice already. The main role of the data validators is to look at our final data set to make sure we didn’t miss anything and to confirm the information is correct. We only send the validators data that is relevant to their role in government.

Y a-t-il des frais d'adhésion pour rejoinder la CdP de l'ÉPCA?

La CdP de l'ÉPCA est gratuite! Il n'y a pas de frais pour devenir membre ou pour participer aux événements. De plus, les personnes ayant une expérience vécue ou s'identifiant comme autochtone ont droit à un honoraire.

Qu'implique le fait d'être membre de la CdP de l'ÉPCA?

La CdP de l'ÉPCA vous permet de vous impliquer en fonction de votre intérêt et de votre capacité. Vous pouvez choisir les événements auxquels vous souhaitez assister et décider de recevoir ou non les courriels de la liste de diffusion de la CdP de l'ÉPCA. C'est à vous de décider dans quelle mesure vous désirez vous impliquer au sein de la CdP de l’ÉPCA. N'hésitez pas à assister et/ou à participer à tout événement susceptible de profiter à votre travail.

Comment puis-je savoir ce qui se passe avec la CdP de l'ÉPCA?

Vous devez être membre de la CdP de l'ÉPCA afin de recevoir des informations sur les futurs événements du groupe. Les membres de la CdP auront un aperçu du projet de l'ÉPCA tout au long de l'évolution de ce dernier, mais l'objectif principale de la CdP de l'ÉPCA est de rassembler les personnes intéressées par les politiques sur l'alcool au Canada à des fins de discussion et de collaboration. Lorsque le moment sera venu de présenter les résultats du projet de l'ÉPCA 3.0, les invitations seront transmises plus largement au-delà de la CdP de l'ÉPCA.

Si je rejoins la communauté de pratique, dois-je automatiquement valider les données pour le projet de l'ÉPCA plus large?

Les membres de la CdP de l'ÉPCA n'ont pas l'obligation de fournir des données ou de valider des données pour l'équipe de l’ÉPCA. Les personnes chargées de la validation des données de l'ÉPCA sont recrutées séparément par l'intermédiaire de nos contacts au sein des ministères et sont indépendantes de votre participation à la CdP de l'ÉPCA. Si vous êtes appelé·e à valider les données de l’ÉPCA, ce rôle n’est pas très exigeant. Il s'agit parfois de nous aider à trouver les données correctes sur les politiques, mais notre équipe est habituée à ce genre de tâches après avoir déjà effectué l’ÉPCA deux fois. Le rôle principal des validateur·rice·s de données est d'examiner notre ensemble de données final pour s'assurer que nous n'avons rien oublié et pour confirmer que les informations sont correctes. Les seules données envoyées aux validateur·rice·s sont celles qui sont pertinentes pour leur rôle au sein du gouvernement.

Event Listings

June 8, 2022 - Overt and Covert Alcohol Industry Activities: Navigating the Canadian Landscape

*Please note this is a members-only event. If you are not yet a member of the CAPE Community of Practice, please sign up here: (French) (English)

Join us for an exploration of how health promotion intersects with private alcohol interests in Canada. Alcohol companies employ a range of strategies that contribute to the normalization of alcohol including actively promoting their product through marketing as well as undermining evidence-based alcohol health information through industry-controlled Social Aspects Public Relations Organizations (SAPROs). Presenters from the UK and Canada will provide an overview of how SAPROs operate and highlight some specific examples of alcohol marketing and SAPRO activities in the Canadian context.

Register here

Event Recordings, Slide Decks, and Event Summaries

January 19, 2022: Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation (CAPE) Community of Practice Launch Event

Event Description: This public launch event will feature an overview of CAPE research, an update on alcohol policy changes in Canada, and a look ahead at CAPE 3.0. We will also share our vision for the CAPE Community of Practice (CoP) and hear what the stakeholders (you!) would like to see happen in this space. 

Event Poster

March 16, 2022: Alcohol Warning Labels: Informing Canadian Consumers

Event Description: Hear from experts in Canada and beyond about current initiatives and lessons learned regarding implementing alcohol warning labels, legal considerations for Canadian jurisdictions, and discussion of potential next steps.

Event Poster

March 30, 2022: Alcohol Warning Labels Roundtable: Exploring the Legal Issues

Event Description: This roundtable event is a follow-up to our March 16th webinar on alcohol warning labels. The session will provide a more in-depth exploration of the legal issues and considerations around implementation of warning labels in Canadian jurisdictions.

Roundtables are not recorded. High level discussion summaries are available upon request from capecopcoord@uvic.ca

April 13, 2022: Alcohol Warning Labels Roundtable: Advocacy Approaches (Australian Perspective)

Event Description: This roundtable event is a follow-up to our March 16th webinar on alcohol warning labels. Team members from the Foundation for Alcohol Research & Education (FARE) in Australia will provide an overview of the process of developing pregnancy warning labels in Australia and the advocacy approaches used to support their implementation in 2020.

Roundtables are not recorded. High level discussion summaries are available upon request from capecopcoord@uvic.ca

May 4, 2022: Alcohol Warning Labels Roundtable: Advocacy Approaches (Canadian Perspective)

Event Description: This roundtable event is the final follow-up to our March 16th webinar on alcohol warning labels. In this session we will explore advocacy approaches to support the implementation of alcohol warning labels in Canada. 

Roundtables are not recorded. High level discussion summaries are available upon request from capecopcoord@uvic.ca

Terms of Reference

Read the Terms of Reference for the Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation Community of Practice (CAPE CoP)

Lire les termes de référence de la Communauté de pratique de l'évaluation des politiques canadiennes sur l’alcool (CdP de l’ÉPCA)

Contact Us

Other Alcohol Policy Evaluations

Alcohol and Public Health Reports and Guidance

Alcohol Consumption and Harm Data Tools

Alcohol and COVID-19

Detailed policy tracking tables of changes that have occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic are available for each province and territory from CCSA. To request policy tracking tables, please contact Dr. Catherine Paradis

Alcohol and Cancer

Alcohol Warning Labels

Alcohol Industry

Liquor Acts and Regulations

Alcohol Strategy Documents

Municipal Alcohol Policies

Ressources disponibles en français

Project Overview

About the Provincial and Territorial CAPE Project

The provincial and territorial CAPE Project is a rigorous assessment of the extent to which evidence-based alcohol policies have been implemented in all 13 jurisdictions in Canada. The study design is based on a similar model conceived of and implemented by MADD Canada assessing the progress of policy measures to reduce impaired driving (see 2015 Provincial Impaired Driving Report). The types of alcohol policies being evaluated at the provincial and territorial level include those with direct evidence of direct effectiveness as a means of reducing population level consumption of alcohol and/or related harms such as: pricing and taxation; physical availability of alcohol; impaired driving countermeasures; marketing and advertising controls; minimum legal drinking age laws; screening, brief intervention and referral programs; and liquor law enforcement. We also assess evidence-based strategies that more indirectly facilitate implementation of the direct policies mentioned above. These strategies include: control systems for the distribution and sale of alcohol; provincial and territorial alcohol strategies; monitoring and reporting of alcohol related harms; and health and safety messaging.

About the Federal CAPE Project

The federal CAPE Project is a rigorous assessment of the extent to which evidence-based alcohol policies have been implemented by the federal government in Canada. The study design is based on a similar model conceived of and implemented by MADD Canada assessing the progress of policy measures to reduce impaired driving. The types of alcohol policies being evaluated at the provincial and territorial level include those with direct evidence of direct effectiveness as a means of reducing population level consumption of alcohol and/or related harms such as: pricing and taxation; physical availability of alcohol; impaired driving countermeasures; marketing and advertising controls; minimum legal drinking age laws; and screening, brief intervention and referral programs. We also assess evidence-based strategies that more indirectly facilitate implementation of the direct policies mentioned above. These strategies include: control systems for the distribution and sale of alcohol; a national alcohol strategy; monitoring and reporting of alcohol related harms; and health and safety messaging.

About the 2013 Provincial CAPE Project

The 2013 provincial alcohol policy evaluation report provided an initial systematic and comparative review of policies and programs across all Canadian provinces which have the potential to reduce the considerable health and social harms from alcohol. The overall objective was to encourage greater uptake of these practices and thereby improve public health and safety in Canada. The study design was based on a similar model conceived and implemented by MADD Canada assessing the progress of policy measures to reduce impaired driving (see 2015 Provincial Impaired Driving Report).

Funding bodies

  • 2022-23 Provincial, Territorial, and Federal CAPE Project (CAPE 3.0): Health Canada, Substance Use and Addictions Program
  • 2022 Provincial, Territorial, and Federal CAPE Project (CAPE 3.0): Public Health Agency of Canada
  • 2021 CAPE Community of Practice (CAPE 3.0): Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Connection Grant
  • 2019 Provincial and Territorial CAPE Project (CAPE 2.0): Health Canada, Substance Use and Addictions Program
  • 2019 Federal CAPE Project (CAPE 2.0): Public Health Agency of Canada
  • 2013 Provincial CAPE Project (CAPE 1.0): Canadian Institutes of Health Research

CAPE 2.0 Provincial and Territorial Reports and Summaries (2019)

CAPE 2.0 Federal Report (2019)

CAPE 1.0 Provincial Reports (2013)

CAPE Presentations and Webinars

Infographics and Fact Sheets

Academic Journal Articles

Media Releases

Media Coverage

CAPE 2.0

CAPE 1.0

Researchers

  • Mark Asbridge (Co-Investigator | Dalhousie University, NS )
  • Dr. Russell Callaghan (Co-Investigator |Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria, BC; University of Northern British Columbia, BC)
  • Dr. Marilou Gagnon (Co-Investigator | Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria, BC)
  • Norman Giesbrecht (Co-Principal Investigator | Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, ON)
  • Robert Mann (Senior Scientist, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON )
  • Dr. Tim Naimi (Co-Principal Investigator | Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria, BC)
  • Jacob Shelley (Co-Investigator | Health Ethics, Law & Policy (HELP) Lab, Western University, ON)
  • Dr. Adam Sherk (Co-Investigator | Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria, BC)
  • Kevin Shield (Co-Investigator | Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, ON)
  • Robert Solomon (Co-Investigator | Western University, ON)
  • Dr. Tim Stockwell (Co-Principal Investigator | Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria, BC)
  • Dr. Kara Thompson (Co-Investigator | St. Francis Xavier University, NS)
  • Fariha Alam (Research Associate, Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria, BC)
  • Amanda Farrell-Low (Communications Officer, Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria, BC)
  • Kate Vallance ( Research Associate, Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, Victoria, BC)
  • Nicole Vishnevsky (Research Assistant, Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria, BC)
  • Ashley Wettlaufer (Methods Specialist, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, ON)