After eliminating alcohol from make an agreement this week with If interprovincial trade barriers are eliminated, some in the alcohol industry say they are confused and disappointed – and that they've waited long enough for provinces to make changes.
Signed Wednesday by the provinces, territories and the federal government. the agreement promises lift restrictions on the free movement of certain goods within Canada.
However, food and alcohol were clearly excluded from the list – the latter industry had has long been promoted to remove barriers, long before The US tariffs spurred a national campaign to ease free trade between provinces.
“I’m very disappointed,” said Adin Wehner, managing partner of Henderson Brewing Company, a brewery, taproom and bottle shop in Toronto. “We have to be one country, especially in the face of tariffs.”
“I have a lot of friends who have breweries that no longer ship to the States, and we were looking forward to supplying other markets,” he added.
While some provinces say they will make it easier for direct-to-consumer alcohol sales between provinces by next spring, the industry is growing impatient and one expert doubts that will ever happen.
“We've been talking about this for years”
Canada's alcohol industry faces a number of economic challenges.
Consumers, especially young people, drink less; as with other businesses, the cost of resources has risen along with inflation; and for brewers price of aluminum cans US tariffs increased.
Interprovincial trade barriers add another layer of complications, Wehner said. That could mean additional interprovincial shipping costs, different packaging requirements and different out-of-province alcohol pricing structures, he said.
It may take some time to understand all these terms. “By the time they put it on the shelf, it could have been two months old,” he said.
Back in July, nine provinces and one territory (excluding Nunavut, Northwest Territories, and Newfoundland and Labrador) signed the agreement. memorandum of understanding on direct-to-consumer alcohol sales, with the intention of removing these barriers by May 2026.
“It's not really a firm commitment. Given that we've had similar commitments before, we always say that nothing's done until it's done,” said Jeff Guignard, CEO of WineBC, an organization that advocates for winemakers across British Columbia.
“I understand the rules are complicated, but we haven't talked about it for weeks. We have been talking about this for many years,” he added. “Our industry has been waiting, and this is having a major impact.”
Despite talk circulating across the country about “putting your elbows up” and “buying Canadian,” some businesses say it's not enough to increase revenue. Some Alberta distillers say more needs to be done to make it easier and more profitable to sell their products in other provinces.
British Columbia wine producers have a particular beef with Alberta. Their neighboring province added ad valorem tax Wine products sold to Albertans in April made it more expensive for the winery to ship to consumers outside the province, Guignard said.
“It’s time to break down these interprovincial barriers and allow Canadian wine to move freely across provinces,” he said.
CBC News reached out to the Privy Council office to ask why the provinces were unable to reach an agreement regarding alcohol. The representative did not respond by deadline.
Provinces are running in circles, economist says
By excluding alcohol from the agreement, provinces are repeating the same steps that led to the creation of interprovincial trade barriers in the first place, argues Moshe Lander, a senior lecturer in economics at Concordia University in Montreal.
“Along the way, every province said, 'Well, I want an exception for this and I want an exception for that.' And the next thing you know, we have this maze of exceptions and exclusions that make these interprovincial barriers so disruptive,” Lander said.
It is likely that the provinces have reached a consensus that alcohol should, at least for now, be excluded from any free trade agreement, he added, because of the revenue generated by provincially regulated retailers such as the LCBO in Ontario, the SAQ in Quebec and the NSLC in Nova Scotia.
The Newfoundland and Labrador government signaled Monday that it is willing to budge when it comes to eliminating trade barriers with other provinces, but as CBC's Terry Roberts reports, there are still many obstacles to protecting local jobs and products, especially when it comes to the brewing industry.
For example, CBC News. found it last year that the LCBO earns the province about $2.5 billion annually as a retailer and wholesaler (though it's possible that figure has changed since Ontario Premier Doug Ford gave convenience stores the go-ahead to sell alcohol).
“Alcohol is still a direct or indirect government monopoly that generates money for the province. And so removing those barriers compromises their ability to make money. Because they now face more competition than they otherwise would have,” Lander explained.
“If you ask anyone in the Annapolis Valley, they will tell you that the presence of Ontario wineries in Niagara hitting Nova Scotia shelves will spell the end for them. Ontario will say that a little competition is good for you. It will improve your game,” he added.
In addition, regional spirits producers — from winemakers in the Okanagan in British Columbia to craft brewers in Newfoundland and gin distilleries in Quebec — could be a boon to local jobs and tourism that provinces would like to protect, Lander said.
While Guignard and Wehner say some progress has been made on the issue, Lander isn't hopeful the barriers will be removed.
“It could happen, but I don't think it will,” he said. “And I think part of the problem is that the political will has to be there among 14 people at the same time.”
