Agriculture committee  The depressing effect it has is about 5% to 6% of the market in Canada. We interpret this to mean that there is about $150 million annually in gross margin that is unavailable to the spirits industry because we can't take advantage of the opportunities, the real market opportunit

Agriculture committee  Internationally, the world has developed very clear rules around trade, and that goes to our first one. You do need to have a clear, independent, and robust dispute mechanism because there are always going to be disputes about whether you're being treated fairly or not. Without t

Agriculture committee  If you don't mind, I'd like my colleague, C.J. Helie, to comment on that.

Agriculture committee  Without some form of enforcement, which may include some type of penalty, we're not going to make any progress.

Agriculture committee  It needs to be something that sends a message to individual provinces that if they do certain things, there is a cost to it. I mean, ultimately it stops people from investing in markets in Canada, which is damaging to the business fabric and limits growth across the country. Sinc

Agriculture committee  Canada is a trading nation. We exist and our lifestyle and our way of life is based on the fact that we are successful at selling many Canadian products outside of Canada. We only have 30 million people. We need people to think about selling outside the country. If we only look a

Agriculture committee  The short answer is politics. You have local producers and you have governments wanting to keep local producers happy and wanting to see those local producers prosper. I think part of it comes from a limited understanding of how the business works. In their desire to help their

Agriculture committee  It's interesting. I was the president of the Canadian Wine Institute through the years leading up to that as well as the Wine Council of Ontario and the British Columbia Wine Grape Council, and you're right. Many people feared it would be the death of the wine industry in Canada,

Agriculture committee  Yes. If you don't mind, I'm going to use Alberta as an example. We have three good-sized distilleries in Alberta.

Agriculture committee  Right now in North America and in many parts of the world, consumers are extremely interested in and excited by rye whisky. We have a plant in Calgary that sources its grain entirely in Canada, makes tremendous rye whiskies, and it's winning awards all over the place. They have p

Agriculture committee  I think most have. Sorry, C.J. Go ahead.

Agriculture committee  I think you've summed that up very well. I think that's exactly the case.

Agriculture committee  British Columbia has a successful and a vibrant wine industry. When we did the FTA and the NAFTA, the Government of Canada and the Government of British Columbia put some measures in place to assist the domestic wine industry in British Columbia to change its game, improve itsel

Agriculture committee  We have a very large distillery in Quebec, in Valleyfield. Virtually 100% of the grain that's used in that distillery to produce vodka, liqueurs, whisky, a range of spirits products, are very high quality, all are exported and sold around the world and are well respected. When th

Agriculture committee  I'm a little hesitant to pick out any one province. At a philosophical level everyone says they get it and everyone says they agree, but when it comes down to the practical issues of how you start to implement that, or for example, start to take away subsidies to local businesse