Local breweries asking for a level playing field
Posted July 28, 2012 10:47 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
LANGLEY (NEWS1130) – A couple of weeks ago we told you how BC wine could now be sold across provincial borders through the Internet. Now, some folks in the beer industry are wondering why the same rules don’t apply to them.
“Local wineries sell their product out their front gate and pay virtually no provincial taxes on it. As a craft brewery, we sell our product out the front door and we pay all the applicable taxes,” explains Derrick Smith, President of Dead Frog Brewery.
He wants to be on the same level playing field with the wine industry.
“I think the wine industry has done a great job of setting up some rules with the provincial government and the craft beer industry, because it’s been going for so long and I guess it didn’t have as good a lobby group to start with, we don’t have those same privileges,” Smith believes.
A couple of weeks ago, the province made it official that you could have bottles sent directly to your front door from any winery that makes only 100 per cent Canadian wine in another province, as long as it’s for personal consumption.
The MP who introduced the bill that changed the law has said he has only been approached by wineries.
