In the new issue of Precedent, resident oenophile Matthew Sullivan calls for reformation of a law that prohibits the transporting of wine across provincial borders.
“To my alarm, I’ve discovered that transporting even a single bottle across a provincial boundary violates the Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act and repeat offences carry a minimum six-month jail sentence,” he writes. “Only liquor boards like the LCBO are authorized to import wine into a province.”
“Clearly, this is a law in need of reform,” Sullivan adds, “because well-meaning people must be inadvertently breaking it all the time.”
Sullivan is not alone on this. The Globe and Mail reported yesterday that British Columbia Premier Christy Clark supports a private member’s bill from a B.C. MP that would amend this law. “I think it makes common sense to make it possible for B.C. wine producers to be able to sell wine to individuals across provincial boundaries,” she told the Globe.
The bill, introduced in October by Dan Albas, MP for Okanagan-Coquihalla, seeks to amend the Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act, “which makes it illegal to ship alcohol across provincial boundaries without going through the receiving province’s liquor board,” the story notes.
“This amendment would create a personal exemption from the act,” Albas writes on his website. “This … will allow individuals to either directly import, send, take or transport, or cause to be imported, sent, taken or transported wine only for personal consumption. This is not for resale or for other commercial use in quantities as permitted by the province in question.”
>> Watch this video clip of Albas addressing the House of Commons on the issue.
The bill — which the Globe says has gone through two readings and is now headed for committee review — has received backing from supporters, including the B.C. Wine Institute. The institute says that “the law as written prohibits someone from coming into the Okanagan, buying some wine and taking it home — in the process, pinching winery revenues and a fledgling wine-tourism sector.”
That’s certainly what irks Sullivan. “Whenever I travel to Vancouver, I bring home some wine,” he writes in the latest issue of Precedent. “After all, the Okanagan Valley has some stunning wineries; with an almost Californian climate, it can perfectly ripen rich, red varieties like cabernet sauvignon or merlot, a feat that often eludes Ontario wine makers.”