Mr. Speaker, 25 years after the Canadian wine industry underwent a major transformation, hundreds of Canadian wineries make high quality, international award-winning wine. The economic impact of the Canadian wine industry now is roughly $7 billion dollars.
There is something that has not kept pace with this growth.
In 1994, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency put in place a guideline that was to be an interim measure that in effect would allow wine producers to bypass country of origin labelling. The “Cellared in Canada” designation allows wines made from non-Canadian grapes to carry the Canadian brand. These wines have limited, if any, connection to Canadian land, or its terroir.
Just as we would take issue with consumers being sold counterfeit goods like a generic cola with a Pepsi label on it, we should take issue with non-Canadian wines being sold as a Canadian product.
As such, I urge the Standing Committee on Agriculture to study the effects of this out-of-date, misleading designation and recommend changes to this policy that would be fair for all Canadian wine producers.