B.C. challenges Alberta wine boycott under free trade pact
British Columbia’s wine industry was waiting for the province to do something to fight back against Alberta’s boycott of the province’s wines, and Monday it did by announcing it will formally dispute the measure under a national freetrade agreement.
Bruce Ralston, Minister of Jobs, Trade and Technology, said Monday B.C. is formally challenging Alberta under provisions of the Canada Free Trade Agreement dispute settlement process.
“I figured there would be some sort of feedback, some sort of challenge,” said Jason Ocenas, manager at Township 7, which has wineries in Langley and Penticton.
“For whatever government not to do something would show ‘hey, we’re going to let wineries just be collateral damage in our disagreement with (Alberta),” Ocenas said.
The trade dispute erupted Feb. 6 when Alberta Premier Rachel Notley launched the boycott on B.C. wine sales in its liquor stores in retaliation for B.C.’s proposal to restrict the expansion of bitumen shipments through B.C. Notley said that would cost Alberta $1.5 billion per year.
Monday, B.C.’s industry indicated it was grateful for the challenge, but remains wary of the time such a dispute process might take, according to a statement from B.C. Wine Institute CEO Miles Prodan.
“As far as we can tell, (a dispute) can take anywhere from 18 months to 24 months,” Prodan said, which is too long for the industry to endure the boycott.
Despite Notley’s threats to ramp up the trade dispute if there’s no action from B.C. on the pipeline issue, Ralston said he is “confident we have the strong possibility of a resolution.”
“The reason for doing it is that there’s a violation of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (by Alberta), an important agreement signed by all provinces and territories,” Ralston said in a scrum with reporters at the Legislature.
Alberta Trade Minister Deron Bilous said Monday in a statement Alberta will “defend our actions vigorously,” characterizing the boycott as a “reasonable response to an unreasonable attack on the Canadian economy.”