The Ontario government is taking notice of a new provincial policy announced today that allows British Columbians to order wine online from the rest of Canada without having to pay B.C. tax on top of originating province’s tax.
B.C. winemakers, however, must still wait for other provincial governments to make similar changes before they will be allowed to ship their products across provincial boundaries.
The B.C. government announced July 12 that it would not wait for a reciprocal agreement with the Ontario government before allowing British Columbians to order an unlimited quantity of Canadian wine online without having to pay extra tax, as long as the purchase is for personal consumption.
B.C.’s liquor minister Rich Coleman had taken flak from B.C.’s NDP leader Adrian Dix and federal Conservatives, such as Okanagan-Coquihalla MP Dan Albas, who wanted him to lead the way by:
- allowing British Columbians to order wines online from the rest of Canada; and
- not adding any provincial tax and mark-up to those products, which are already taxed in the originating province.
Ontario’s finance minister Dwight Duncan, who heads that province’s liquor board, did not respond to Business in Vancouver’s request for an interview.
However, his spokesperson Scott Blodgett said, “We will review the new policy of the government of British Columbia with interest.”
Coleman told BIV in June that he wanted to reach a reciprocal agreement with Ontario to forego adding provincial tax to out-of-province wine shipments that are already taxed in the originating province.
He did not expect that mutual agreement to come soon.
“I would be disappointed if we do see protectionism,” Albas told BIV at the time. “People in B.C. should be making the decision, not people in Ontario.”
B.C.’s new rules allowing online shipments of an unlimited amount of wine for personal use also alters the policy that Coleman announced June 7, which limited to one case the amount of wine that British Columbians could import for personal use. Previously, the government required that those shipments be carried personally and not shipped.
“Today, we encourage other jurisdictions to take immediate steps to reciprocate by opening up their borders and allow all Canadians to order wine over the Internet,” Coleman said in a press release.
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