I think the key thing we're trying to get across here is to help support the competitiveness of the Canadian wine industry by addressing barriers to trade as a starting point. The largest barrier to trade that we face right now is within our own country. Moving wine from province to province is very difficult. We are one of the only retailers in the world that has to say no to a consumer who wants to buy our product. But we also depend exclusively on the liquor boards to be able to market our product. They are a fantastic partner when they're selling your wine. However, to be able to sell your wine, there has to be some knowledge of the Canadian wine product out there, which there isn't right now.
That was a point we were trying to make. Our competition is coming to Canada with millions of dollars of federal funds to market their products. California hits every major centre across Canada once per year. The liquor boards love it. When consumers know what your wine tastes like, they want to buy it. It's an opportunity to list that wine in the liquor board.
We don't have that for Canadian wines. We used to. Back around 2000, right after free trade, Agriculture Canada had a program known as Canada à la Carte. The wine industry, the federal government, and the Fairmont hotels partnered. We did white tablecloth tastings with Canadian food across the country. It was a fantastic opportunity. We were very young back then. We're much more mature. It would work better today than it did then. We need that type of program to be able to support Canadian products and encourage Canadians to consume more. If they did, there would be significant dividends.
Within Ontario, the most recent research would suggest there is an $11.50 multiplier on the sale of an Ontario bottle of VQA wine, a $7.72 multiplier on an Ontario bottle of international-Canadian blended wine, and a 67¢ multiplier on a bottle of imported wine, yet imports represent 68% of sales across the country.