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It’s been over a year since Canadian provinces, including BC, began a U.S. liquor ban, removing U.S. alcohol from liquor store shelves and halting further purchases. BC liquor licensees were able to sell remaining stockpiles until they ran out.
While Alberta and Saskatchewan have since lifted the ban, in April, Ravi Kahlon, BC Minister of Jobs and Economic Growth, told Michelle Eliot of BC Today that the ban will stay in place “Because it’s working”. Kahlon said that while there are economic impacts in BC, he added as an example that “We are losing hundreds and thousands of jobs in the forest sector” and “If it [the ban] gives us a lever to address the multiple challenges we have across our economy, we need to use it”.
Ian Tostenson, CEO of the BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association, is urging the government to modify the restrictions, telling CBC News, that the ban has cost the hospitality sector about $70 million in profits from U.S. wines alone.
The CEO mentioned other negative impacts on the industry:
- Financial pressure on restaurants and bars that rely on these products
- Ripple effect impacting importers and distributors
- Consumers going outside BC, to Alberta for example, to buy U.S. liquor
Tostenson says that while the industry supports local producers, they can’t replace, on a one-to-one basis, U.S. products that are unavailable because of the ban.
The policy remains tied to broader trade tensions between Canada and the United States. Prime Minister Mark Carney has said the U.S. liquor ban is unlikely to change until U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel, autos and lumber are lifted.
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