As far as I know, none of our members have received assistance directly linked to production changeover. I'm talking about B.C. We have 70 craft distilleries here in B.C.
Early on there were only a couple of dozen who did the conversion. A bunch of others were waiting to see. With the positive words coming out of Ottawa and out of our own province—John Horgan was doing the same thing, saying, “Hey, we've got your back, thanks for doing the right thing”—I think it's fair to say that a lot of national distillers were emboldened by that and they doubled down. I know we did.
My dad said, “Well, they are going to do the right thing. Why wouldn't they?” Maybe we were naive. I work with lots of people at the national and provincial levels, and I always hear the same thing, “Well, you guys could have just waited. Your members could have waited for more demand and more desperation and then signed the cheques.” That's not what we are all about, and remember, those were very scary times.
Many of the members did eventually have to pivot across for paying. Some were doing a sort of combination where they would sell to a corporation that could afford it, and then they would use those funds to make more to donate to hospitals and front-line workers, but, yes—