How Canada can free its wine

(OttawaCitizen) - As vacationers travel around Canada this summer, here is a question to ponder for those who sip fine Canadian wine: why do so many provincial politicians oppose free trade in wine among the provinces?

Before last year, it was illegal for Canadian wineries to ship direct to consumers in another province. That was unlike, say, how a Quebec dairy producer can sell cheese to a grocery-store chain based anywhere in Canada.

Readers may recall that Dan Albas, a federal member of Parliament, tried to help consumers and Canadian wineries bust through interprovincial blockages with the introduction of his private member’s Bill C-311. Passed last year by Parliament, the bill amended a 1928 federal law that prohibited transporting “intoxicating liquors,” i.e., wine, across provincial borders.

That law, the Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act, resulted from post-Prohibition era requests from the provinces to grasp more control over alcohol sales. But because of Bill C-311, which struck down the prohibition, there is no longer any federal reason for not ordering a case of wine from a Canadian winery regardless of where you live.

Alas. Some provincial politicians oppose free trade in wine. That is because they might lose some revenue from lost markups and taxes if consumers buy directly from another province; and retailers might lose a few sales.

Thus, some provinces continue to try to block now federally freed-up wine shipments. They do this by retaining bans on transporting wine not bought at the government-approved stores (Quebec), or by just pretending consumers cannot import wine unless they personally drive it across a provincial border.