Alberta wages wine war with B.C.

Alberta is cracking down on direct sales of B.C. wine to consumers, in a move that some in the industry are calling “ridiculous.”

In a letter to British Columbian wine sellers, Alberta’s provincial liquor wholesaler threatened to stop stocking B.C. wines in-store if wineries didn’t cut their direct-to-consumer sales, often arranged through wine subscription or membership sales.

John Skinner, proprietor of the Painted Rock Estate Winery, is one of those in the industry who received the strongly worded letter from Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis, threatening to put an end to his wine club.

“To be approached this aggressively by Alberta, under the circumstances, is just ridiculous,” he said.

Roly Russell, parliamentary secretary for rural development in BC, says it’s “disappointing” that Alberta has chosen now to push on the industry, given the growing pressures mounting on the industry from other sources, like weather.

“This action out of Alberta is just one more pressure to add into that system, for an industry that really supports a great deal of the economy in B.C.’s southern Interior,” Russell said.

Due to cold temperatures in recent years, Russell says about $27 million in production insurance claims have been given to growers who lost vines due to last winter’s cold. The changing climate is forcing wine growers to evolve their growing practices rapidly, he says.

According to Russell, B.C.’s minister of public safety and solicitor general has recently taken steps to meet with their Alberta counterpart and put a stop to the threat.

“This action is not only limiting Albertan’s freedom of choice… but it’s also impacting B.C. wineries in a pretty material way,” Russell said.

Skinner says there’s no good reason for this threat to be made, suggesting there’s a simple option to resolve the issue.

“We can find a rational, simple, positive solution to this, just do a flat tax and let’s shake hands,” Skinner said.

He says his business isn’t dependant on sales from Alberta, but he greatly values his Albertan customers due to their loyalty.

“Let them point, click and buy, help a Canadian business, and let us remit the taxes,” he said.

According to lawyer Al Hudec, who’s representing winemakers in their push back against Alberta, remitting tax is the simple fix that wineries have already shown a willingness to take part in.

“The wineries have been saying for a long time, put in a regime that regulates this, authorize them to collect the provincial alcohol tax and give them a place to remit it to and we’d be happy to do that,” Hudec said.

But he says by threatening to cut off wholesale deliveries, Alberta is forcing wineries to comply with their threat because all wholesale deliveries destined for restaurants and retailers have to go through government warehouses.

He adds 48 states and four Canadian provinces already accommodate this tax remittance within their own, internal alcohol markets without any sacrifices made to their own in-province retailers.

“There’s a lot of confidence they work,” he said.

“Right now, Alberta’s regulating their residents by telling them not to import, but it’s also impossible to enforce a prohibition on folks ordering without border control, which doesn’t exist between provinces.”

Hudec and Skinner both say they’re keen to find out if there’s something else at play on a larger scale that they’re unaware of, since they say these actions from Alberta make little sense otherwise.

Back in 2018, a similar ban was put on the import of B.C. wines to Alberta by then-premier Rachel Notley, amid a trade war over a Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

-With files from Liza Yuzda and Raynaldo Suarez