Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I'm going to start with Beer Canada, Spirits Canada, and the Vintners Association, purely because all three of you raised two of the same issues.
The first one is the interprovincial trade barriers. I think all three of you raised that issue. We're having a lot of trouble in this country right now dealing with trade negotiations with the United States and other countries, but it's crazy to think that even within our own country we have these issues around trade. I think about the fact that some of my favourite wines are from Prince Edward County. When I'm here, that's fine, but if I'm at home in Alberta, I can hardly find them anywhere. The same goes for B.C. The B.C. wines are great wines. I can usually get them in Alberta, but here it's a little more of a challenge. I think about some of my favourite beer. One of my favourite beers is from the chair's home province. I'm not trying kiss up here or anything, but there's Sir John A's Honey Wheat Ale, and it's great, but I can't get it in Alberta. Those are some examples. It's crazy to think that here in Canada we can't even trade these products across our own provincial borders. That's just astounding.
The other issue was the escalator tax, or the excise tax. I just want to give you all an opportunity to talk a bit more and briefly touch on the impacts it would have on your industry. I want to hear a bit more about the impacts that you see from that escalator tax, in particular when you think about the fact that that's essentially taxation without representation. What happens there is that taxation gets increased every year, and not one single politician, not one single person who's representing anyone in this country, has to stand up and be counted for the changes that are being made and the taxes that are increased every single year. Tell me about the impact that this will have on your industry. I particularly want to hear about the smaller ones, the craft distilleries, the craft brewers and the ones that are trying to get started.
I often hear this from winemakers, and you'll know this one, Mr. Paszkowski: "How do you become a millionaire in the wine industry? You start with $10 million."