Niagara calls for support to local wineries
Province asked for tax breaks, improvements to help struggling industry
Regional councillors are asking upper-tier governments to level the playing field for Niagara’s struggling wine industry.
Members of Niagara’s planning and economic development committee supported a motion by St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik on Wednesday that asks the province to eliminate a 6.1 per cent tax on VQA wines and implement additional changes that would allow local wineries to become more competitive.
“What we’ve heard is if we’re going to build our economy back stronger, we’re going to have to look at those sectors that are very well rooted in Ontario. I can’t think of an industry that’s more rooted than the grape and wine industry here in Niagara,” Sendzik said.
The industry, he said, is literally rooted in the soil of Niagara’s vineyards.
“This is a sector that you just can’t pick up a facility and put it in Mexico. This is a facility you can’t just move over to China and start producing something,” he said.
There’s also a lot at stake within the industry that directly and indirectly supports more than 18,000 full-time jobs.
“This a unique aspect to the grape and wine industry here in the Niagara area, which is also a tourism draw,” Sendzik said.
His unanimously supported motion also calls on the province to “create a level playing field” for the industry and opportunities to invest in innovation and job creation, allow for the direct delivery of Ontario wines to grocery stores, increase shelf space for VQA wines at LCBO stores, eliminate import taxes on 100 per cent VQA wines, and that the motion be circulated to municipalities of wine-producing regions, Premier Doug Ford, the ministers of finance and agriculture, and local MPPS and MPS.
Lincoln Coun. Rob Foster said similar motions have been approved at local municipal councils in past years “to remind the province that there are big problems in this area.”
He suggested also asking the province to address trade barriers that make it difficult for wineries to ship their products to other parts of Canada.
He said, for instance, Australian wines are readily available in Winnipeg, “but there’s not a single Ontario wine to be seen.”
Lincoln Mayor Sandra Easton said some of the laws that wineries are still struggling with are “very outdated and need to be changed.”
Niagara-on-the-lake Coun. Gary Zalepa said there’s a misconception that wineries are “flush with cash and everybody’s making tons of money.”
“We know that’s not the case,” he said.
“They’re struggling.” Region Chair Jim Bradley said local governments have consistently supported the grape and wine industry, “and I think we are wise to do so again.”
“With all the competition out there for attention and dollars and tax policy, it’s most appropriate that we indicate our very strong support for an industry which is so significant here in Niagara peninsula.”