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Shipping, Border, Import Laws

Bringing Wine Back Between Provinces After a Trip

This article summarizes the provincial laws that apply when a person travels to another province and then brings wine for personal consumption back with them to their home province at the end of the trip. Please note that other articles apply for the following situations:

Bringing Wine Back to Canada After an International Trip

Shipping Wine Between Provinces (i.e. not bringing it back with you)

It should be noted that since there are no \’hard borders\’ between provinces, there are obvious difficulties with enforcing these rules. It is also odd by global standards to even have a discussion that relates to \”importing\” wine between provinces. In most places in the world, there are no internal rules governing the transport of wine between regions of the same country.

Nevertheless, here are the rules on a province by province basis (this table will be updated periodically as information becomes available – if the information is blank for a province, I am in the process of adding it.). You will note that Western Canada has more permissive rules than Eastern Canada! 

Province \”Import\” Rule After a Trip (On The Person Imports) Notes
BC

Unlimited quantity of alcohol for personal consumption may be brought back to BC from another province.

See BC regulation.
AB Unlimited quantity of alcohol for personal consumption may be brought back to AB from another province. See s.3.27 of this AGLC policy.
SK Unlimited quantity of alcohol for personal consumption may be brought back to SK from another province. See s.71 of Sask. regulation
MB Unlimited quantity of alcohol for personal consumption may be brought back to MB from another province. See s.71 of the Manitoba statute.
ON Unlimited quantity of alcohol for personal consumption may be brought back to ON from another province. See ON regulation.
QC Up to 3 litres of spirits; 9 litres of wine; or 24.6 litres of beer. See Quebec regulation.
NB One bottle (of undetermined size) See s.43(c) of NB statute.
NS    
PEI Up to 3 litres of spirits; 9 litres of wine; or 24.6 litres of beer.  See s.33(2)(b.1) of PEI statute.
NL 18 litres of wine; 6 litres of spirits; or 52 litres of beer. See NL regulation.
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BC Eliminates \”On-Person\” Alcohol Importation Limits

As of July 8, 2019, the BC Government has eliminated the limits on the amount of alcohol that may be brought into BC from another province so long as the alcohol is personally transported with the traveler (e.g. bringing back wine with you after a trip to Alberta). The previous limit for wine after such a trip was 9 litres (one case of 12 bottles). The new rules have no limit on amounts for personal consumption. The amended regulation is here: Order in Council 399/2019. I note that these rules do NOT apply for alcohol that is shipped from another province. The limits on such transactions, which would include e-commerce sales, remain at zero unless the alcohol is 100% Canadian wine purchased direct from a winery, in which case the limit is also an unlimited amount for personal consumption.