Month: November 2010

A bit of great news from Ottawa. Kelowna Lake Country MP, Ron Cannan, has tabled a motion in the House of Commons to end Canada\’s silly interprovincial wine shipping prohibition by creating a personal use exemption. It\’s about time … and please support this effort by telling your own MP that you strongly support it.

The motion reads as follows:

That, in the opinion of the House, the Canadian wine industry, the Canadian tourism industry and Canadian consumers would benefit from an amendment to the Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act to allow any person to import, send, take or transport Canadian wine into any province or territory directly from a winery, liquor board, liquor commission or similar outlet for the sale of wine located in any other province or territory within Canada for consumption by that person and not for resale, further distribution, sale or for any use other than personal consumption.

CBC has now covered this story: Wine should flow across provincial borders

In a surprise development, the Solicitor-General and Police departments have announced that all breathalyzers in BC will be recalibrated so that the \”warning\” level (previously set at .05 which triggered an immediate roadside suspension) will be moved upward to .06. CBC News is reporting that the changeover will take 10 days, during which time \”roadside suspensions will not be given to drivers who are caught in the warning range\”. So, for the next 10 days, the practical consequence will be a limit of .08 (which is the setting for \”fail\” – and for potential criminal charges). After the 10 days, the \”warning\” limit will then be .06. These changes were implemented in response to concerns that the roadside breathalyzers had a \”margin of error\” and may have triggered false \”warning\” readings. These developments are concerning because they imply that the roadside breathalyzers devices are not sufficiently accurate to trigger harsh roadside penalties. Criminal lawyers have previously warned about the accuracy of the devices and the assertion that some police officers are not using them properly. In addition, there are now worrying questions about what to do about drivers who were given suspensions, perhaps without justification, and about whether the devices are sufficiently accurate at the .08 level.

Fresh off a victory in defeating privatization initiatives in WA state, distributors there are asking the WA liquor control board to permit them to charge an \”extra fee\” when retailers buy wine in less than full case lots. Specialty retailers can currently purchase wine in \”mixed cases\” from wholesalers which permits them to offer greater selection to consumers without tying up cash in an inventory of full cases which may sell slowly. Indeed, according to this news report (Wine Sellers Argue New Fee Will Increase Prices for Consumers), more than half of the wine sold in WA state is sold in \”broken cases\”. The specialty retailers oppose the fee because it could increase the cost of hard to find or limited distribution wines.

Here in BC, this issue is a hot topic for retailers and restaurants because the majority of BC\’s fine wine selection is relegated to the \”SPEC\” distribution system. Wines that are listed as SPEC products are not available AT ALL unless a retailer or restaurant orders a full case. Mixed cases are not permitted AT ALL and customers are usually not permitted to split a case between them. Agents (BC\’s equivalent of distributors) have resorted to repackaging wine in smaller cases of 6 or even 3 in order to improve availability but this increases the price of the individual bottles as wholesale handling and storage costs then increase dramatically. As a result of this systemic discrimination, wine selection in BC retail stores and restaurants is poor compared to other jurisdictions. BC retailers and restaurants have long requested that the SPEC system be fixed.

Kelowna MP, Ron Cannan, has gone on the record calling for reform of the federal Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act. As readers will know, this is the archaic law from 1928 which prevents Canadian wineries from shipping wine directly to consumers in another province. Cannan is calling for the Act to be amended with a personal exemption which will allow wine lovers to direct order wine from other provinces in reasonable quantities for personal use.

Liquor law reform debates are continuing both in BC and south of the border.

BC: In BC, an industry led \”call to arms\” is raging on the Scout Magazine website following the publication of a perceptive open letter to the BCLDB by Vancouver sommelier, Jake Skakun, who argues that the current liquor distribution system is in desperate need of reform: To Whom It May Concern at the BC Liquor Distribution Branch. The debate also continues in the mainstream press over the BC government\’s changes to provincial drunk driving laws: How Much is Too Much? (Globe & Mail).

USA: Tom Wark\’s Fermentation Blog has an excellent summary of the Top Legal and Political Wine Stories of 2010.

A new group of Canadian wine consumers, the Alliance of Canadian Wine Consumers, has launched a facebook page and a web site with the goal of reforming Canadian liquor laws so as to permit the shipment of limited quantities of wine from Canadian wineries to consumers in other provinces for personal use. At the present time, the shipment of wine across provincial borders is prohibited by an archaic post-prohibition law passed in 1928 (see earlier article for details). The new site at FreeMyGrapes.ca encourages consumers to write or email their elected representatives at both the federal and provincial levels and ask for legal reform. The site also recognizes \”heroes\” who are working to support these changes … the first being Kelowna-Lake Country MP, Ron Cannan, who is supporting the movement.

BC\’s newly appointed solicitor-general, Rich Coleman, has announced a review of the province\’s much-publicized \”tough drunk driving laws\” which were introduced less than 2 months ago. Coleman indicated that the new laws were having \”unintended consequences\” on bars and restaurants. As has been widely reported, the new laws have caused a significant drop in liquor sales at bars, restaurants and wineries. Coleman is also the minister responsible for the Liquor Distribution Branch whose sales would also be affected by a drop in consumption and upon which the province relies for about $900 million worth of annual liquor tax.

Developments in the worlds of politics and wine both south of the border and here in BC …

WA Privatization Initiative Defeated. Washington state voters defeated an initiative in the state that would have deregulated their liquor industry probably more so than in any other state (52% to 48%). The Costco-backed initiative 1100 would have closed state liquor stores (which still have a monopoly on the sale of spirits) and would have eliminated the requirement to source all liquor products through wholesalers and distributors (the middle tier of the 3 tier system). Various other restrictive laws and regulations would also have been removed. Washington state wineries were generally opposed to the initiative primarily because it would have removed the \”immediate payment\” requirement currently in place for liquor sales and because of fears regarding changes to distribution practices that protect smaller wineries.

BC Premier Resigns. Here in BC, Gordon Campbell announced that he would step down as Premier as soon as the Liberals choose a successor. Campbell\’s resignation was a direct result of the controversy surrounding the introduction of the HST. The BC Liberals will now be largely consumed with a leadership race. Perhaps our next Premier will be a wine lover?  Maybe then we will get some relief from our archaic distribution system and its related liquor laws?