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opinion

The federal government should act on a motion by Ron Cannan, the MP for Kelowna-Lake Country, so that wine can flow more freely from province to province.

It is strange for a federal statute to establish a whole set of interprovincial trade barriers. But the Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act was passed in 1928, to enable the provinces to consolidate their monopolies over the sale of alcoholic beverages, and to help "temperance" and "liquor-control" provinces coexist. At first, the Senate passed a sensible amendment, allowing a consumer - for example, in Lloydminster, Sask. and Alta., - to buy up to a gallon of such a fluid in one province and take it to another, but six provincial governments protested, and the Senate retreated.

The IILA is essentially unchanged unto this day. Wine (or any other alcoholic beverage) cannot be carried across a provincial border unless it is sold and delivered to a provincial liquor authority - a single buyer (a monopsony) that in most provinces is also a single seller (a monopoly). In these times of online sale and purchase - and of increasingly varied wines and beers across Canada - it has become more unreasonable than ever that Canadian consumers are at the mercy of single buyers.

Mr. Cannan's motion is in principle the same as the Senate amendment of 1928, though it applies only to wine, and would take the form of a personal exemption from the IILA for anyone who wants to be an interprovincial buyer for personal use. It is generally supported by vintners but not by liquor boards. Stockwell Day, the President of the Treasury Board, and Gerry Ritz, the Minister of Agriculture, appear to be favourable toward the proposal, and the government should introduce a bill to this effect.

The federal legislative power over trade has long been underused. The liberalization of consumer wine-purchasing from province to province would be a hearty swig toward a greater economic union in Canada.

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