W I N E G R OW E R S C A N A DA
An Ice Breaker on National Trade
Uncorking Canada’s potential
By Raly Chakarova, Director, Policy, Toronto Regional Board of Trade; Asha Hingorani, Director, Government and Public Affairs,
Wine Growers Canada, formerly known as the Canadian Vintners Association
Retail e-commerce in Canada is
expected to reach more than $64
billion this year, up a whopping
21 per cent from last year. While online
shopping and direct-to-consumer
deliveries have become an important
aspect of consumer life, Canada still lags
behind other mature economies in the rate
of e-commerce adoption. Even with players
like Shopify, eBay and Amazon offering
online platforms for Canadian SMEs to
sell their goods to a broad consumer base,
antiquated interprovincial trade barriers
are inhibiting these efforts for Canadian
businesses and consumers alike.
In no industry is this more apparent
than in Canada’s burgeoning wine, beer and
spirits sector. While Ontario vineyards are
free to sell and ship their goods overseas,
they are legally prohibited to directly sell
to consumers in neighbouring Quebec.
Ontario consumers on the other hand,
can freely order wine from Europe or the
United States, but can face $100,000 fines
and possible jail time if they directly order
wine from another province.
In a climate of heightened international
trade volatility and regionalization
within Canada, it’s inexplicable to maintain
these domestic trade policies that cut
our SMEs off from tapping into the wider
Canadian consumer market and growing
their operations.
So, how did we get here? In 1928, a
prohibition-era federal statute known as
the Importation of Intoxicating Liquor
Act (IILA) established controls and
restrictions on the movement of liquor
from one province to another. This legislation
remained untouched for 84 years
until 2012, when the “Free My Grapes” Bill
C-311 removed the federal barrier prohibiting
people from having wine transported
from one province to another for
personal consumption.
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