can british columbians now have beer and other spirits from across canada shipped to their door?
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it will take till 2027 for b.c. to implement a new interprovincial deal allowing direct-to-consumer sales of wine, beer and spirits.
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a new agreement signed by all provinces except quebec will expand the ability for british columbians to have beer, spirits and liquors from across canada shipped directly to their door and allow for b.c. wineries, distilleries and breweries to sell their products across most of the country.
on tuesday, premier david eby and his counterparts from alberta, saskatchewan, manitoba, ontario, new brunswick, nova scotia and newfoundland and labrador signed an agreement on direct-to-consumer alcohol sales.
b.c. already allows its residents to get wine directly from vineyards in other provinces without any additional taxation or regulation, but the same does not extend to beer, spirits or other alcoholic products.
while the other eight provinces will remove these barriers immediately, british columbians will have to wait until february 2027, which is when eby says the government will have the new system running.
here are three things you need to know about the new deal.
why can’t b.c. open up direct-to-consumer sales immediately?
taxation.
all liquor sales in b.c. run through the liquor distribution branch, which registers products for wholesale and sets prices based on what the supplier’s price is, what the ldb thinks the provincial markup should be, and whether there are any container deposits, recycling fees, federal customs or gst that need to be added.
this wholesale approach applies to bars, restaurants and liquor stores but does not apply to direct-to-consumer sales where a winery, distiller or brewery ships directly to a customer.
eby says b.c. needs to build a system for sales back and forth with other provinces so that it can regulate and collect taxes on the purchases. this will extend to wine, bringing the free market that currently exists under government control.
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“the challenge we face in british columbia is we have a provincial liquor system that was built for provincial sales. and so we have to build our database and duty collection system, the tax collection system, for a national system,” the premier said thursday.
“we can’t have it where b.c. products have provincial and federal taxes on them, and products from other places don’t. and so getting that all in place to make sure that we’re able to provide that seamless access to the b.c. market and vice versa is critically important for us.”
will more products from other provinces now be in liquor stores?
not necessarily.
while some spirits and other alcoholic beverages from elsewhere in canada are sold in provincial and private liquor stores in b.c., the decision on what spirits can and cannot be sold is regulated by the liquor distribution branch, which often favours local products or bulk imports.
this is partly due to demand, as there is much larger demand for wines from france or italy than wines from ontario.
ryan mitton, b.c. legislative director for the canadian federation of independent business, said the regulations in other provinces are also confusing for small businesses and not always transparent.
“every single province appears to have different ways of marking up the cost of alcohol, and it’s not always transparent in most cases,” said mitton.
“what we found in looking at this, looking at the different markup structures and models, is that it can be pretty obscure and confusing for a small business looking to get into the marketplace, especially looking to get into another province in the marketplace to register, partake in getting their product listed and distributed.”
what do business groups and economists think?
jeff guignard, ceo of wine growers b.c., said there is already an ease of access for british columbians who want to order wine from other parts of the country.
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he said this needs to be expanded so that residents of other canadian provinces can buy b.c. wines directly. but, he worries the new system will be gummed up by red-tape and high mark ups.
“our job now is to ensure that there are no additional taxes or markups. like we don’t need red tape here. we don’t need nine individual provinces or 10 provinces doing it all their own way. we need a national system that makes sense for everybody, so it’s easy for consumers and businesses.”
jairo yunis, director of policy at the business council of b.c., said that the direct-to-consumer agreement is a step in the right direction but provinces will decide how far the door is opened.
he said he’d like sales to be as straightforward as possible.
“we would like to see a very straightforward online-registration process, reporting requirements that are proportionate and easy to comply with, as much consistency as possible with the systems that are going to be adopted elsewhere in other provinces,” said yunis.
trevor tombe, an economist at the university of calgary, said that alcohol represents a very small part of interprovincial trade, only about $3 billion of the $500 billion worth of annual trade between provinces, and the new system won’t do much to improve the overall economy.
he said that what provinces need to focus on is reducing barriers on services, which represent 60 per cent of trade between provinces.
“within canada, we need a different intuition around what trade is, services mostly, and the barriers there are in the form of the hundreds and hundreds of professional credentials that are not recognized across provincial borders,” said tombe.
“easing the ability of people to buy and sell (alcohol) increases the variety that people will be able to access, but it’s not going to move the needle on productivity, which is the ultimate goal of trade liberalization.”
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