Several of my recent columns for PrintAction have discussed the growing markets
for wine, beer, and alcoholic spirits in Canada and the innovations in packaging that are both helping to drive them and creating new opportunities for printers. This week another development
signals further commercial growth for wine: Bill C-311--a private member's bill ending the restrictions
on carrying wine across provincial borders for personal consumption--passed
third reading in Canada’s House of Commons with unanimous support. Now it heads to the Senate, where it is
also expected to pass.
The bill was introduced last October by Conservative
MP Dan Albas, who represents the federal riding of Okanagan-Coquihalla in the
heart of British Columbia’s wine-producing territory. "We should be trying to take down these barriers to
make it as easy to sell to someone in Alberta as it is to sell to someone in
China," Albas told CBC News after the bill passed Wednesday night.
Since the prohibition-era Importation
of Intoxicating Liquors Act, it has been illegal in Canada (with a
few exceptions) to carry alcohol across provincial borders. The new bill would allow people to do
so, although only for personal use, as well as allow Canadian vineyards to ship
wine by post or courier to customers in other provinces. Small wineries have long complained that the current
interprovincial barriers prevent people from legally taking home a few
bottles from their favourite vineyards out of province.
Although wine can already be
shipped between provinces for commercial sale, the shipments are only permitted
through the provincial regulatory and marketing bodies for alcohol, such as British
Columbia’s Liquor
Control and Licensing Branch (LCLB) and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). Thus many smaller vineyards say they
are left out of the process because they don't produce enough product to
interest the provincial regulators.
While passage of Bill C311 will help alleviate small
wineries’ concerns, it won’t eliminate all provincial restrictions. For example, regulators in British
Columbia, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and the Yukon still limit the amount of alcohol
their residents can bring from other provinces for personal use to: one case of wine, four bottles of
spirits, and a combined total of six dozen beer, cider and coolers.
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