We do.
Evidence of meeting #52 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was provinces.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #52 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was provinces.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
We need to promote it.
Going back to my original question, how much money needs to be spent to do a proper marketing program across this country for Canadian wines?
5 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Grape Growers of Ontario
I wouldn't want to be speculative, because I could go from $1 million to $500 million, but that is where CVA has already made some submissions in the past. We are one of the partners across Canada, and certainly we will work with anyone to come up with a strategy that would be most appropriate.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
Do you have an application in to the federal government for marketing ?
5 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Grape Growers of Ontario
We do not have a federal.... CVA got an application through GF2, but not for a national scope, and we're looking more for a reinvestment of the dollars that are already derived through taxes that are provided to the federal government.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
How much do they take off per bottle? What's the breakdown on average?
5 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Grape Growers of Ontario
I'd have to break that down. I apologize that I don't have that for today.
5 p.m.
Liberal
5 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Grape Growers of Ontario
The liquor board taxes are all within that, so there's a 60% markup if you sell through the liquor board as compared to selling through your own wine retail store, and within that is the federal tax as well.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
For a $15 bottle of wine on the Ontario liquor shelf, you're saying the wine producer probably only gets $6 or $7 maybe.
5 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
Thank you very much, Mr. Eyking.
We'll now go back to the Conservatives. Mr. Payne, you're going to finish off and maybe split your time. Is that correct?
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
LaVar Payne Conservative Medicine Hat, AB
Yes, that's correct. I'm going to split my time with my colleague Larry. Hopefully we'll give him a little more than a minute and a half.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
LaVar Payne Conservative Medicine Hat, AB
Thank you again, Debbie, for attending.
Earlier we had Dan Paszkowski here, the president of the Canadian Vintners Association, and we did talk about the amount of money for the domestic marketing program. I think he suggested about $35 million over five years.
5:05 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Grape Growers of Ontario
Oh, my $100 million was out then. I'm sorry.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
LaVar Payne Conservative Medicine Hat, AB
That's okay. I guess it all depends on the size of the marketing program you want to have.
Anyway, he indicated that would be over five years. Certainly some of that could be federal government and somebody, maybe Mark, suggested provinces could be part of that process as well as the Canadian Vintners Association. That's not a bad approach.
You also talked about financial support for other countries in their marketing programs. Is that financial support to go into international markets, or is that just for domestic markets?
5:05 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Grape Growers of Ontario
That's definitely something on which we have a lot of studies. They get support both for domestic and for international campaigns. When you're buying into a promotion at the LCBO, there are subsidies for a lot of those wine regions, such as Australia and New Zealand, and we've talked a little bit about Italy, France, and others. That we know for sure.
One of the important aspects—when Dan was probably talking about the $35 million program—is that Ontario already has a commitment of about $75 million to the grape and wine industry both for marketing and for grape production. So the Ontario government—I can only speak about the Ontario government's perspective—has just given us a $75-million program to spend over the next five years for marketing. We'd like to see some of that money matched by the federal government as well.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
LaVar Payne Conservative Medicine Hat, AB
To go back to my little trip to Niagara to my favourite winery, I tried to buy the wine here in Ottawa. I couldn't find it in any of the stores. I find it totally unbelievable—
5:05 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Grape Growers of Ontario
But I think that's the consumer dynamic.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
LaVar Payne Conservative Medicine Hat, AB
—that you can't get an Ontario wine in an Ontario liquor store. Anyway, that's my frustration.
I'm going to pass this over to my colleague, Larry Maguire.
Thank you.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Ms. Zimmerman, my colleague from B.C. has a comment as well. I'm going to let him have the time.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
Yes, it's Bob Zimmer.
In looking through this and in talking to my colleague Earl Dreeshen from Alberta, we're aware of the agrimarketing program under Growing Forward. Right now, even, on the Government of Canada website, the ag website specifically states, “$341 million is available in the form of government projects and contribution funding during five years”, between 2013 and 2018. I have another announcement from a few years ago, and a certain amount was allotted to the vintners in B.C., in Richmond specifically.
You say there's no money. I just question whether you have applied for any of it. You said that you hadn't, and I just wondered if maybe you want to correct that statement if you have.
5:05 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Grape Growers of Ontario
No, I don't want to correct the statement, because I'm correct in my statement.
First of all, the fact is that we did apply for the money, but we're not allowed to apply because we must have a national perspective. We weren't allowed, as a domestic industry, to apply. That's why the CVA, as I mentioned, did receive the money. The way the agrimarketing program is set up, you have to do it on a national perspective. As the Grape Growers of Ontario, we couldn't apply. We couldn't match our provincial money with the federal money.
We've pointed that out to the standing committee before. We felt that the program needed to be adjusted because it is for a national scope.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
I guess I would ask in terms of strategy if more could be asked. On what was initially successful with the vintners group, you could ask through them as a group that has the scope. There's $341 million sitting there. I guess I would challenge you to craft your ask a little more specifically and maybe use those pan-Canadian groups to do so, because we're definitely in support of marketing. That's why we're here: to make sure that our vintners are successful and grape growers are as well.
Do you have any comments on that?