The Merritt-area Member of Parliament is hoping to allow cross-country alcohol shipments through new legislation that would offer a workaround to inter-provincial trade barriers.

Dan Albas has tabled a private members bill to to amend the federally regulated Canada Post Corporation Act to allow direct-to-consumer sales of beer, wine, and distilled spirits across Canada. He calls the plan ‘buy, ship, and sip’, saying it would bypass provincial restrictions giving people more choice while unlocking new markets for producers, especially the smaller operations.

“Canadian vintners compete against wines from USA, Italy, Portugal, France, New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere,” Albas said on twitter. “These competing countries do not have the senseless restrictions on internal trade that continue to exist in many Canadian Provinces.”

The MP for Central Okanagan – Similkameen – Nicola says the bill makes sense in a digital age when customers increasingly are shopping online.

Currently, just four provinces allow direct-to-consumer sales into their jurisdictions – Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia.

“As it currently stands, many Canadians cannot find their preferred wine, spirit, or craft beer on the shelf of their local stores and Canadian producers are unable to ship their product because of these archaic and outdated inter-provincial restrictions that continue to vex this country,” Albas said.

“This simple amendment would not only increase the happiness of Canadians and allow them to shop safety, but it would also help those small businesses that are seeing a sharp decrease in their foot traffic due to the pandemic.”