Ontario, B.C. and Quebec uncork deal to allow online wine purchases

By Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia will work together to ensure consumers have expanded access to wines produced in their provinces.

Premier Kathleen Wynne, Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard and B.C. Premier Christy Clark announced a deal Friday at the premiers’ conference in Whitehorse.

The objective is to provide consumers with full and easy access to online purchases of any wine produced in all three provinces.

“We haven’t freed the grapes entirely, but they’re a little bit freer,” said B.C. Premier Christy Clark in making the announcement.

A deal to allow consumers to purchase wine online through each province’s government-controlled liquor monopoly may seem like small beer in the context of the overall agreement on free interprovincial trade the premiers were seeking at their Whitehorse meeting this week.

But Quebec’s Philippe Couillard said it was just the start.

“More will come,” he said. “We didn’t want to tie us down and wait until we work on the whole gamut of issues around our state-sponsored agencies.”

Couillard said that could take another two or three years. He added Nova Scotia, another wine-producing province, is interested in signing on to the deal.

Wynne says the agreement will help customers in Ontario learn more about wines from Quebec and British Columbia.

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