The B.C. Wine Institute has applied for a court injunction challenging a ban on B.C. wine imports by the Alberta government in the Trans-Mountain pipeline dispute.
“We just notified the AGLC today of our intent to seek an injunction to lift the ban for B.C. wine into Alberta.”
President and CEO Miles Prodan says they cannot wait for cooler heads in the B.C. and Alberta governments to prevail in the pipeline dispute that has dragged in the B.C. wine industry.
“It is causing some hardship early. We do not see any quick resolution to this at all. The B.C. Government has stepped up and offered to take Alberta to take a look at the Canadian free trade agreement and the dispute mechanism in there. But that can take months an our industry cannot afford to wait that long.”
Prodan says the longer the dispute rages on the more damages this province’s wine industry will incur.
“What we are finding with the AGLC prohibition the doors are locked. What wine is in there has been pulled off the shelves. Alberta consumers have taken all the B.C. wine they can get. That is starting leave holes on the shelves of retailers and restaurants. They are not going to wait forever. They are going to start looking for other options and once that happens it will be very very difficult to find your back on to a wine list in a restaurant or on a shelf of a retail store.”
The BC Government is also challenging the ban via a trade complaint under a pan-Canadian free trade deal.