Thank you.
I'm Harry McWatters and I'm the president of the Vintage Consulting Group. I've earned my living in the wine business for almost 45 years as a producer, grower, and consultant, and I was the founding chairman of VQA Canada.
Some of the things I'd like to address here have already been touched on, but the first thing is that this bill—and I commend Dan Albas for bringing this bill before the House—brings clarity to what can and cannot be done from a federal perspective, and hopefully, then, the provinces will follow suit to create clarity for the producers who will take advantage of this in the future.
Today I can speak most authoritatively for British Columbia, where we have approximately 200 producers, most of which are very small family operations. Some actually advertise that they will ship across the country, while others clearly state they won't do it because it's a federal offence, and even though people have not been prosecuted, they're not of a mind to break that law.
One of the things that is unique to this is that the small producers often do not have sufficient quantities to be able to appoint an agent or a distributor in other jurisdictions; therefore, even if they were to apply for the listing, they really don't have the inventory to support a meaningful listing in other jurisdictions. This would give them the opportunity to ship those unique products to other regions—and I'm not specifically talking about British Columbia—that have tried unsuccessfully to source wines from other wine-producing regions in Canada.
As a winery consultant, I have one client in California who, if it weren't for this kind of business, wouldn't be in business. He's a third-generation producer, producing a unique style of dessert wine. People aren't interested in buying case lots or multiple case lots in other jurisdictions, but his business survives from his cellar-door sales and the one or two bottles that are shipped as a result of mail-order business. I see this as a great opportunity for our small producers from coast to coast.
I should also add that I do have clients from Vancouver Island to Nova Scotia to Mexico, so I am involved in consulting in a number of jurisdictions.
One other aspect that I think is important, and it was alluded to, is the advantage the large producers may have of shipping non-100% Canadian wines. I can speak authoritatively for the three large producers in British Columbia, and all three, with their multiple outlets, sell only VQA wines from their wine shops, thus allowing for the purchase by their visitors of 100% British Columbian or Canadian-grown product from those particular outlets.
I think this bill is long overdue—80 some-odd years overdue—and I think it's a wonderful opportunity for us, if by no other means, to unite this country from coast to coast through wine.