Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. My name is Jan Westcott, and I'm the president and CEO of Spirits Canada. Spirits Canada is the sole national organization representing Canadian spirits manufacturers, exporters, and consumers. My remarks today are expressed

Agriculture committee  I think we're around 65% domestic, so to our good fortune, Canadians still prefer Canadian whisky. We drink everything, but we still prefer Canadian whisky. As I said, we make significant amounts of vodka in this country, and we're also very large in the liqueurs business.

Agriculture committee  I mentioned Colombia. I think that is going to be a very significant success story for us, both in terms of selling our products in Colombia, and, just as importantly, as a stepping stone into the wider Latin America marketplace. As for some of the other deals that have been do

Agriculture committee  We are the most successful whisky in the largest, most profitable and, some would say, most discerning beverage alcohol market in the United States. I think we can replicate that success in other markets. As Canada negotiates these things, they are all exciting opportunities for

Agriculture committee  About 70% of what we make leaves the country. So the domestic business is 30%. We actually produce in four provinces: this is produced in Alberta; this is produced in Manitoba; these three are produced in Ontario; and this is produced in Quebec.

Agriculture committee  The United States is our largest market. Europe would be number two. Asia is number three. One of the struggles that we have, in addition to the ones I talked about, is that our principal or traditional export markets are all struggling. The U.S. is in tough shape. Europe is in t

Agriculture committee  One thing we do know is that as we look out around the world, Canada has the lowest average gross margins available to people who make spirits. When we sell our product to one of the liquor boards, what we get back is about 18¢ of the retail dollar. For everything we do, from buy

Agriculture committee  It has a whole bunch of aspects, but I would say that one of the most critical is the excise tax. As I said, we're all becoming smarter and more sophisticated. The days when somebody looked at a bottle of our product and failed to recognize that the alcohol in there was the same

Agriculture committee  I would say that it's about $60 million. Our excise duties are $11.69 per proof litre—so that's a litre of actual alcohol. That went up by 60¢ in 2006. We're asking the government to reduce that by a dollar. I mentioned that a glass of wine, a bottle of beer, and a mixed drink wi

Agriculture committee  Well, as I said, we're exporting about $500-million worth of product from Canada right now. I think Alberta alone does about $50 million. If you could grow that even by 10%, which is a pretty modest target, if we could take that to $550 million, that's a lot more material that we

Agriculture committee  Absolutely. Let me say right from the start that we believe in competition. Competition makes things better. It serves consumers well. It stimulates businesses to be innovative. It pushes people to try to lower costs. It has a very positive effect on the business. When government

Agriculture committee  One of the things that we've seen in the last 15 years is that the world has changed, whether because of health reasons or.... People want to be more fit and are just more aware that if they overconsume it has undesirable consequences. We want people to use our products properly.

Agriculture committee  No. As C.J. says, liquor boards police that pretty effectively. They have very sophisticated labs. I think Ontario and Quebec probably have amongst the most sophisticated beverage alcohol laboratories in the world. That's not really a factor. As for Canada-U.S., we're relatively

Agriculture committee  Yes, absolutely. It seems to take government—not this government in particular, but governments everywhere—a long time to get abreast of changes in the marketplace. You're correct in that many of the rules that impact our business are old, and it takes a great deal of effort to c

Agriculture committee  As I said, I would say that we're more successful in other countries than we are in our own country. We have had some fortunate history on our side. Canadian whisky really was introduced to Americans for the first time during the American Civil War. All their distilleries were cl