Finance committee  The only thing I can say is that Canadians have free access to wine from across the country. There are no trade barriers—

Finance committee  Yes. That's the same for any wine from anywhere in the world, so that's the free trade aspect of it. Residents of Ontario or any other province can get wine from any country in the world through their liquor board. They can get wine from any province in Canada through their liquo

Finance committee  Let me add to this that it's not a question of your bringing a case of wine back from the Okanagan when you've been there visiting wineries; it's when you get back to Alberta and decide that you like that wine so much that you're going to go online and have them deliver four or f

Finance committee  Let me take one shot at that. There are producers in Quebec who bring in 100% Chilean wine, for example, bottle it, and sell it through the depanneur system in Quebec. If the bill goes through and provinces make changes to their regulations, consumers could technically order th

Finance committee  First, she could put it in her suitcase and bring it home.

Finance committee  She's on a bicycle. Okay—

Finance committee  Currently, the only way she could do it would be to write down the name of the product, and then when she gets back to her home province, order it through the liquor board and have it delivered to her house.

Finance committee  Well, we're actually moving to case weights, and a lot of bottles are now packed in six-bottle cartons, as they are in Europe.

Finance committee  She'd go home and order it, yes.

Finance committee  The liquor board would order it from the winery at their wholesale price, so the $16 wouldn't be $16; it would probably be less than that. Then the liquor board would add their markups on top of that. It could bring it back to the $16 level or slightly more, depending on the cost

Finance committee  It depends on the jurisdiction. In Ontario, if you wanted to pay an expedited fee, you would get it in three days, but most likely it would take a couple of weeks.

Finance committee  No, you can go to the liquor store and pick up a bottle. Nine times out of ten, if you're ordering from outside the province, it's not for consumption that evening.

Finance committee  I'd just like to comment that at a large Canadian wine symposium in Niagara just last month, international trade experts said that direct sales could very likely result in a trade challenge and the loss of numerous existing advantages to the Canadian wine industry.

Finance committee  That depends on what province you're talking about. In Ontario, there's a competitive relationship, because the wine industry has something like 350 off-site stores to compete with the LCBO. In Quebec, the SAQ competes with the depanneurs. In British Columbia, the British Columbi

Finance committee  We figure that if the bill becomes law and provinces institute direct shipping, those kinds of sales could represent up to 5%, so we're figuring on about a $300-million loss.