Page 70 - Grapevine May-June 2019
P. 70
International News
Canada Vows to Loosen
Federal Barriers to
Interprovincial Wine Trade
By: Briana Tomkinson
F or almost a century, Canadian wineries to your home from a winery in B.C. or Ontario.
Canadians who flout the rules risk fines, and even
have been prevented from shipping their
wines direct-ly to customers living in other
provinces. After the most recent federal budget jail time in some instances, he said.
announcement earlier this year, however, wine “It’s the 21st Century, and yet we’re still restricted
industry leaders say they are cautiously optimistic from the full use of wine clubs, the internet, and
that Prohibi-tion-era rules restricting trade could social media because we could only sell to people
soon be relaxed—a move which industry leaders who reside in the province,” Paszkow-ski said.
say could be a game-changer for Canada’s many
boutique wineries. Although online ordering from wineries or wine
clubs is uncommon, polling has shown that a strong
In March, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s gov- majority of Canadian consumers would like to be
ernment announced that the 2019 federal budget able to have wine shipped to their doorsteps. A
would remove a requirement that alcohol shipped Gandalf Group poll commissioned by the Canadian
across provincial borders must be sold or con- Vintners Association in 2017 found 87% of consum-
signed to a provincial liquor authority. According ers believed Canadians should be allowed to order
to Canadian Vintners Association presi-dent Dan wine to their home from a winery.
Paszkowski, if the proposed rule change passes in
June, it would remove the last federal barrier to In Canada, the vast majority of wine consum-
internal trade in alcohol. ers shop at provincially run liquor stores. In the
poll, between 80% and 93% of customers said
The only catch? Provincial governments still have they bought their wine from a government-man-
the power to make their own rules regulating the dated liquor outlet. The one provincial exception
sale and distribution of alcohol within their bor- was Alberta, where only 15% buy from a govern-
ders. ment-run store, and 80% buy from a privately
owned and operated liquor store.
The last time the feds relaxed their rules, only a
handful of provinces chose to follow suit. In 2012, Only 19% of Canadians said they bought wine
the federal government relaxed certain restrictions directly from wineries, though this option was
on interprovincial trade that had been in place more popular in British Columbia, where 27% said
since 1928, officially allowing Canadians to bring they did so. Only about 2% of customers said they
alcohol across borders for personal use. However, shopped online at a government-run online store,
Paszkowski said only three provinces—British private online store or wine club. Very few con-
Columbia, Manitoba and Nova Scotia—chose to sumers, just 9%, were even aware of the option of
update their regulations to allow residents to ship ordering wine directly from a winery.
wine to their doorsteps.
Although government-run liquor stores have a
In other provinces like Alberta, for example, virtual monopoly on sales, domestically produ-ced
Paszkowski said citizens can bring in as much wine wine has little to no representation on store
as they can carry on their person. However, it shelves. In seven out of 10 provinces, Vintners
remains illegal to have even one bottle cou-riered Quality Alliance (VQA) wines—a designation
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