The premiers of nine provinces announced Tuesday that they’re removing major barriers to interprovincial sales of alcohol.
Provincial rules will be changed to allow brewers and distillers to sell alcohol directly to consumers regardless of jurisdiction.
The agreement knocks down a number of trade barriers across the country. Direct-to-consumer sales of beer, wine and spirits manufactured in one province and shipped to consumers in another have been largely governed by item-specific agreements between provinces or were effectively prohibited.
“Canadians can get the benefits of these products, strengthening internal trade — being our own best customer at a time when it really matters,” New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt told reporters in Charlottetown, where premiers are meeting this week.
New Brunswick and Manitoba had already dropped the barriers before Tuesday’s announcement.
Not all provinces signed on.
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The premiers of Quebec, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut didn’t sign the deal. However, a statement released by those who did sign said Quebec and the Yukon were working to join in the near future.
The new trade system is effective immediately, but British Columbia said it is aiming for next February to get regulations in place.
Tuesday’s deal stems from a memorandum signed by all the provinces and the Yukon in 2025 to take action on the file.
The new agreement comes after U.S. President Donald Trump announced this week a plan to implement steep tariffs on Canadian beer, wine and spirits.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said those new duties mean it’s more important than ever for governments to build an economy free of interprovincial trade barriers.
“Today’s agreement will open new markets and new choice and convenience for producers and customers in Ontario and across Canada,” Ford said in a statement.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the same new opportunities are now open to producers in her province. She said the next step will be clearing the way for barrier-free retail sales across the country.
N.W.T. and Nunavut said in a joint statement that they support the goal of knocking down trade barriers but didn’t sign Tuesday’s deal because “of the unique realities of our territories.”
“Many of our communities have locally determined alcohol restrictions or prohibitions that reflect community priorities and cultural values,” the statement said.
“Respecting community self-determination is fundamental to how alcohol is managed in the North.”
Industry groups praised the announcement.
Dan Paszkowski, the president of Wine Growers Canada, said they’ve been urging the change for almost two decades.
“Today’s agreement is the culmination of years of collaboration between governments and industry and represents a transformational step toward a truly national Canadian wine marketplace,” he said in a statement.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, or CFIB, said it appreciates that governments want to reduce trade barriers and said a further sign of success will be low or minimal licensing or regulatory fees for direct-to-consumer sales.
Dan Kelly, CFIB’s president, also said the premiers should now work on opening up retail sales.
@anon i spell incorrectly because then my comments are less likely to be removed. you have nothing to worry about because you are parroting the gov narrative. do you get why i call myself winston smith? he was the gov censor. i noticed that you did not rebut the content of my comment so i will assume you begrudgingly agree. you must admit its ridiculous to say your gov is anti american and pro canadian then at the same time not allow canida oil but bring in us oil for central canida. thats why there is a movement in ab that i support
Don’t have the desire to post multiple comments, so here goes:
@AB Proud – knock yourself out, hopefully literally.
@ Ray and Winston Smith 1984 – hoping you grab an English dictionary and high school diploma while you’re out purchasing your booze. Oh, and don’t drink and drive.
@ Willow – people in Saskatchewan definitely cannot live without beer and wine, Jayden Dalke would confirm this if he hadn’t killed himself and another person last weekend.
@ Incontinentia Buckets – *Your. Who is stupid?
@ Anonymous from July 22 @ 3:16pm: Your statement is partially true but misleading. While PMMC made dropping internal trade barriers a signature election promise—repeatedly pledging “free trade by Canada Day”—the claim that “it never happened” is false. The federal government moved quickly to pass Bill C-5 (the One Canadian Economy Act), which successfully removed the trade barriers and exemptions under federal jurisdiction by its target date. However, total free trade has stalled because the federal government cannot legally force provinces to eliminate their own local restrictions. (Yes this is AI. The commenter I’m responding to doesn’t deserve any more than that.)
Scootch Moe no doubt partying hard tonight!! Don’t drive drunk and kill another innocent, Scooter!
Looking forward to buying some excellent VQA BC wine.
@John
You’re evil and stupidity are only outclassed by your TDS.
Let’s just kick Quebec out of Canada already. It’s time.
BC has to consult the FN first to see if its ok with them. I would think that if the government adds an additional deposit fee per bottle which would go to them, then they will gladly sign an agreement.
Dropping of interprovincial barriers to trade was the backbone of Carney’s election promises. He said he could do it right away after the election but that never happened. All we got from Carney was flying around the world on our dime signing mickey mouse agreement that have little to no effect on our trade balance. What a waste of space. Carney is interchangeable with Trudeau in popularity and incompetence.
Seems, once again, the BC government is lightning fast at getting issues sorted. If this is Eby getting things up and running fast, what does slow look like ?
“Reinforcing B.C.’s leadership in interprovincial trade”. Not.
As usual Eby is late to the party except when it comes to making deals that give away BC property rights. On that one he is front and centre and an eager participant.
Why is B.C. always last. Worst Gov. we have ever had.
We all know that if a bullet destroyed the obese orange waste of life that the whole world would celebrate and there would instantly be world peace as well all enjoy a life without that waste of space.
wat wood happen if us stoped shipping oil to us your car would stop running
canada brings in 1.1 million barrels of oil 2 million cubic feet of nat gas per day. let that sink in alberta shouldnt asgree to this until they the canadians acept our main products.can is broken and the oil comes from us lol wat a joke
Well it’s about time they have only been talking about it for over a year but it won’t make that much difference. It’s too little too late people are more concerned about the price of food than alcohol. People can live without wine and beer but they cannot live without food.
When are out leaders or so called leaders going to realize that you cannot deal with an ego maniac who care little for his own people, and only thinks of himself and his personal wealth. The reality of the matter is the Canadian buisness group that is only considering itself and the not the country as a whole are to blame as well. They seem to be more than willing to do anything even it is harmful to Canadians in order to line their own pockets. We need to understand that at this point we have two years left of resident idiot in the White House stop trying to do his bidding seek other trading partners, deny anything that is not forward looking, fight fire with fire, arrange meetings then cancel we need to stand up to the USA the rest of the world are honest and ethical, the super powers are untrustworthy and none are worthy of the support of honest, ethical, democratic countries
if weren’t for the usa, canada would certainly be a third world country haha
It will be a long time, if ever, before we buy wine or alcohol from British Columbia, so the news – at least for our home – is rather meaningless.
I don’t understand these people’s obsession with alcohol. Every move they do on trade revolves around it. Why don’t they focus on real things that drive growth like industrial products and resources?
Why was this not already done?!
Were not all interprovincial trade barriers to be removed nearly a year ago now? Wasn’t that nearly the 1st promise made when this trade fiasco began? We seem to have short memories and the governments we deserve.
Donald Trump is quickly losing the chance for his Country
to become the 11th Province of the Greatest Country on Earth.
just cuz it’s on the shelf doesn’tmmean you should buy it
That’s what happens when you accept commonwealth and fail to build a country on yer own laws and regulations it proves that you have no foresight towards the future I hope trump wipes his ass with yer. Weak minded people
Why does it take the pencil pushing in BC longer than in other provinces?
Light a fire folks. Your job requires alacrity.
Don’t lift the ban on alcohol. It’s obviously kicking them right in the nuts.
Still can’t ship provincially inspected meat across borders for retail. Booze is our priority?
About time…
But just going to go out on a limb here and say ‘good for them; good work’s
It can be hard to give someone you don’t always agree with for doing something right…
Go on, give it a try… It feels good.
Be Good.
That’s it? The big take away is lifting alcohol restrictions? We are governed by idiots!
Let’s also remove ALL barriers for all provincial goods immediately.
We are a pathetic country if we can;’t do that,
And while we are at it every single person in this country is to be treated equal and pay equal taxes, with equal rights.
When are canadians stops electing these liberal anti business socialists to parliament
one country about time
Sad that our leaders only seem to make common-sense decisions when threatened
They were going to do that a year ago. what a bunch of Clowns
Over a trillion dollars in investment capital has fled Canada since Sunny Ways Trudeau took over in 2015 because of the klepto-socialist anti-business climate.
Even Carny, our present Prime Minister and former the CEO of Brookfield which manages over $1 trillion USD in assets globally, saw the economic rot and moved his company’s HQ out of Canada to the US in 2024.
Heck, the klepto-socialism rot is so endemic, we can’t even find private investors to build oil pipelines anymore.
I thought this was to be done last year during Elbows Up? Hilarious. I won’t be buying anything from Quebec. I can still buy American Bourbon in Alberta
Trump may be the best thing that ever happened to us. We have been sitting on our hands for decades not grasping at the low hanging fruit that would boost our own economy. Our leaders just needed some motivation and for the first time in decades we are getting that motivation. I think the best case scenario would be for trump to plan 100% tariffs on everything, make all of Canada take responsible economic measures, and then Trump wont follow through.
We are our own worst enemy, we are trying to make a deal with the US yet we have barriers within our own country.