‘We really make it easy to become trade targets’: Internal trade barriers still limiting Canadian booze sales between provinces

At the Queens Quay LCBO store a worker loads up boxes of California wine as part of removing American liquor, wine and beer from their shelves on Tuesday March 4, 2025. Photo by Jack Boland /Toronto Sun

Article content

OTTAWA — What is the easiest way to get B.C. wine into Ontario? You might need to book a plane ticket to Australia.

Article content

It’s an extreme case but that’s what Robbie Raskin, owner of Archives Wine and Spirit Merchants, did when he fell in love with a bottle of vermouth from a local producer in Vancouver Island, B.C., because he could not ship the wine to Ontario due to provincial trade restrictions.

Article content

Article content

Article content

Raskin didn’t want to run afoul of the authorities, given the producer was afraid to “antagonize” the LCBO, having been told that trying to circumvent these rules could end them up on an LCBO blacklist, he said.

Article content

Article content

But, because the producer had a retailer in Australia, Raskin was able to purchase the wine a few months later while visiting a friend in Sydney. When headed back home, he declared the wine at the border. This was, technically, the only legal way for Raskin to get his beloved vermouth home to Ontario.

Article content

U.S. wine products have been removed from the LCBO’s shelves since March 2025, but these empty spaces only highlight the lack of B.C. wines on local shelves.

Article content

At this time when the federal government seems to advocate for pro-Canadian products amidst U.S. trade barriers, there are still discrepancies in the selection of national products as a result of interprovincial trade barriers.

Article content

“There are great things, not just from B.C., from next door in Quebec, that just can’t be sold,” Raskin said. “It’s extremely frustrating for me, personally, as someone who’s big idea was to feature Canadian wine.”

Article content

Article content

All alcohol imports outside of Ontario must be made through the LCBO, which brings the product into its warehouse, charges a markup on it, and then sells it to the consumer, often by the case.

Article content

“The whole process is often impossible,” Raskin said. “You’re sort of stuck in this situation where products from B.C. are treated no differently than an import from outside the country.”

Article content

Raskin said that he recently visited his local LCBO and he noticed that there were only three B.C. wines available, while seventeen out of sixty-six could be purchased through the LCBO website, with most availability limited.

Article content

Last year was when Canada started to realize it had thirteen separate economies, rather than one big domestic market, said Ryan Manucha, a research fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute.

Article content

Although there has been progress with a national agreement among the provinces on direct-to-consumer (DTC) alcohol sales, which aims to finalize DTC alcohol sales nationwide by May 2026, only Manitoba and Nova Scotia have signed deals with Ontario.

Article content

It is important that provinces meet the expectations laid out in the national agreement by May so that the government can achieve items on its internal trade file, said Manucha. “It’s a reflection of a lot of patchwork that needs to be addressed across Canada.”