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ancouver, B.C.—Wine shipments should move freely across Canada, according to a roundtable of wine industry representatives convened for the second annual Canadian Wine Summit at the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival in British Columbia. With a federal election in Canada set for May 2, both industry and consumers should be making candidates aware that demolishing trade barriers is a priority, many attendees said. Canada's Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act, which took effect in 1928, makes it illegal to ship beer, wine and spirits across provincial boundaries. The act hands sole authority for liquor retailing and distribution to individual provinces, which can then assign rights to agents and licensees. "I believe we can have a really simple system," said Charles Pillitteri, CEO of Canada's Wine Industry Wants a Vote V Initiative would allow interprovincial wine shipments 80,000-case Pillitteri Estates Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, when he called for trade barriers to become an elec- tion issue. "It's not that I want us to be less Canadian, I want us to be more proactive." Not all of the two- dozen participants agreed with Pillit- teri's stance. While the law is seldom enforced, the fact that it remains on the books creates problems—especially for wineries that want to ship to consumers. Two-and-a-half years ago Canada's provincial liquor boards sent letters to wineries reminding them of the law. Blackburn Waterloo_Nov10.qxp 8/26/10 11:36 AM Page 1 Sandra Oldfield, winemaker at 35,000- case Tinhorn Creek Vineyards in Oliver, B.C., said that 20% of her wine club members (or about 360 people) live in the neighboring province of Alberta and have to visit the winery to pick up their wines— usually about two cases per year. She can't ship wine to them, nor to tourists who don't want to carry their purchases around in the heat of an Okanagan summer. During a visit to Vancouver at the end of January, federal minister of state (agri- culture) Jean Pierre Blackburn identified restrictions on interprovincial movement of goods as the most important barrier to mak- ing more products from Canada available to Canadians. The most prominent example is restrictions on the movement of domestic wines within Canada. "We want to have products that we can sell in every province," he told a group of re- porters. "There should not be trade barriers." —Peter Mitham WineEast Wines & Vines MAY 2011 57