Finance committee  Good morning. Thank you very much for welcoming us and allowing us to state our position on Bill C‑19. My name is Marc-Antoine Lasnier, and I am the president of Producteurs de cidre du Québec. I'm also the owner of Cidrerie Milton, which is located in the Eastern Townships.

Finance committee  What has caught our attention and brought us here today is the reinstatement of the excise tax. Here's a brief history of that tax. In 2006, 100% Canadian wines were exempted from excise duty. Ciders fall into the wine class for excise tax purposes. As a result of a complaint fi

Finance committee  Our understanding is that it's definitely related to Canada's regulation of the wine industry. Cider is considered a wine at the federal level, as are mead, maple-based beverages and berry-based drinks.

Finance committee  I couldn't tell you whether the government has done in an impact study. However, Cider Canada was established very recently, when this new tax was introduced, and it conducted a study that showed the tax might result in the loss of 4,000 of the 9,000 jobs associated with the sect

Finance committee  Pardon me, but would you please clarify your question?

Finance committee  That would obviously be a huge help to cider producers, mead and berry-based beverage producers and all the partners we've recently spoken to.

Finance committee  Yes, absolutely, but we'd see that more in other provinces than Quebec because Quebec regulations prohibit the use of apples from other countries. Our hands are tied in Quebec. In the rest of Canada, however, apples or juice concentrates could be imported from China or the United

Finance committee  No, not at all; cider isn't an issue. There have also been negotiations between the WTO and federal and provincial governments, and cider wasn't the subject of any targeted negotiations with certain provinces.

Finance committee  We're asking that the budget allocate the necessary resources for the compensation program to support the cider industry as a whole. We would also like the compensation program to be extended to 2030 to afford our businesses some predictability. We also want to see a timeframe

Finance committee  I actually feel privileged to be appearing here today because I think producers on the ground aren't much aware of this issue, even though we've informed them about it and backed that up with numbers. What's coming will be tough on the industry.

Finance committee  Thanks to you, Mr. Garon.

Finance committee  As you can understand, that assessment is quite preliminary, since the association that conducted it is very new; it was created barely a year ago. I'd like to talk a little about the geographic distribution of these businesses. They are highly concentrated in British Columbia,

Finance committee  Thank you. We hope so too.

Finance committee  As I said in my opening statement, a market has developed over the past 16 years, and it's a market for beverages in cans. Ms. St‑Georges is presenting the cans we've marketed. This market is very much like the beer market. In consumers' minds, the product is compared with beer.

Finance committee  That's right.