Agriculture committee  They can sustain travel and they hold their value. In fact, one of the reasons spirits were produced originally was that they held the farm community value in a product over long periods. I think the critical thing we would say is that Canada is doing the right thing in opening

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm Jan Westcott, and this is my colleague, C.J. Helie. Before I address the topic on today's agenda, I'd like to extend our appreciation to the committee for its recommendation in its food supply chain report to address the discrimination against spirits

International Trade committee  Which means that we're going to buy the bottles here, which means the plants are going to run more efficiently...on and on.

International Trade committee  We have liquor boards in Canada. Those are classed as “state trading enterprises”. For those operations, there has been a history—not just in Canada, but in many places in the world—that because they're not normal commercial operations with competitors, the perception has been th

International Trade committee  I don't think I necessarily said there are going to be losers. We see this as an enhanced opportunity for us in the spirits business. We have a fundamental belief in competition. We think competition improves things. It makes things better. It focuses people on the customer. Ther

International Trade committee  We're already seeing an increase in exports. Seventy per cent of what we make in this country leaves Canada; we don't have a big enough market to support it. We have a relatively mature domestic market. People aren't drinking a lot more alcohol nor do we necessarily want them to

International Trade committee  That's the issue. If you don't have the money in your jeans at the end of the day to invest, all the trade agreements that the Government of Canada makes won't do us any good if we can't go out there and seize that opportunity.

International Trade committee  It matters for two reasons. One, as we've indicated, is that we have identified some parts of the European Union where there is going to be greater opportunity for us. Let's be honest: some cultures are more into beer and some cultures are more oriented to wine. Many of the for

International Trade committee  As I understand it, trade negotiations are about trade-offs. You get something, the other guys get something. One of the issues going forward for Europe for a long time has been the manner in which liquor boards recover what they call import “cost of service” differentials; the

International Trade committee  We produce pretty much everything. We produce vodka, gin, liqueurs, you name it. Predominantly our exports are whiskey, but we do export some vodka to Europe. We have a very strong liqueurs business so we also export some of those products. They are unique brands, unique flavour

International Trade committee  In large part that's driven by a renewed consumer interest, pretty much worldwide, in brown spirits, predominantly whiskey, but not exclusively. We're seeing a huge—

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm Jan Westcott, the president and CEO of Spirits Canada, and I'm here with my colleague, C.J. Helie, who's our executive vice-president. We're pleased to be here today in support of the Canada-European Union comprehensive economic and trade agreement,

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  There are a lot of them, but they're different for you than they are for Mr. Storseth, and they're different for everybody else in this room.

Justice committee  No, no. They're just different. There are different factors. That's the problem. They can take an individual and be very specific, but it varies from individual to individual. That's where that subjective judgment comes in: with police officers and other people trying to apply it