Agriculture minister against trade war with Alberta over its ban on B.C. wine

Alberta’s decision to ban the import of B.C. wines could have a “devastating” impact on the Okanagan’s wine industry, Agriculture Minister Lana Popham says.

While vowing to try to have Alberta quickly end the boycott, Popham said she wouldn’t favour the escalation of a trade war between the two provinces.

“We bring a lot of Alberta beef into British Columbia,” Popham noted Tuesday during an interview at the Ministry of Agriculture’s offices in Kelowna.

“I would rather not go down that route,” she said. “That would hurt family farms in Alberta. So I would rather not see that domino effect happening.”

Popham met with Okanagan winemakers earlier Tuesday, just as Alberta Premier Rachel Notley was announcing that government’s boycott of B.C. wines over the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline dispute.

The government-run Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission immediately halted the import of all wines from B.C.

“The wine industry is very important to B.C.,” Notley said at a news conference in Edmonton. “Not nearly as important as the energy industry is to Alberta and Canada, but important nonetheless.”

Alberta imports 17 million bottles of wine worth $70 million annually from B.C.

The wine ban is the latest move in a growing dispute over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion that would carry more Alberta oilsands bitumen to the B.C. coast.

B.C.’s NDP government says it will restrict increased shipments of bitumen while it further studies the effectiveness of spill response and cleanup. For its part, the federal Liberal government has said the pipeline expansion is in the national interest and will go ahead.

About 11 per cent of B.C. VQA wine is sold in Alberta, the Penticton-based BC Wine Institute says.

“We had been working with the Alberta government to better open up that market to B.C. wines, so this has taken us completely by surprise,” institute president Miles Prodan said. “It’s like Notley has taken a page from Donald Trump’s playbook.

“The B.C. wine industry is made up, overwhelmingly, of farm families and small producers, not multinational corporations,” Prodan said.

Popham agreed the effect on Okanagan grape growers and winemakers would be significant if the boycott persists.

“It would be quite devastating for our producers,” Popham said.

“The pipeline is an environmental issue, and our wineries right now are feeling they’ve been caught in the crosshairs, so it’s not fair,” Popham said. “But, one thing for sure, we will fight for our wineries.”