Support Ontario’s Grape Growers
At a time when Ontario’s beleaguered grape growers have been closing their vineyards or been left without buyers and with grapes rotting on the vine, Canadians should not be subsidizing the grape growing industries of other countries.
Unknown to many wine drinkers, this is what is happening when they buy a bottle of Cellared in Canada wine from an offsite winery retail store. An offsite retailer is a non-LCBO store that sells wine and is owned by a small monopoly of very large wineries.
The manufacturers of Cellared in Canada wines have long enjoyed the best of both worlds – purchasing cheap offshore grapes to create a product that contains up to 70% foreign grape juice, while at the same time reaping the benefits of preferential tax policies by being considered a local product.
In October 2009, the Ontario government set a new direction for supporting locally-grown wines and decided to end some of these unfair polices. The plan includes increasing the manufacturers’ tax on wine made with imported grapes sold at the offsite winery retail stores. The taxes from this new program will go directly to supporting 100% Ontario grown wines.
This important initiative is under threat by a handful of huge wineries that have literally been passing by our struggling local vineyards year after year with trucks full of foreign grape juice. The Ontario Greenbelt Alliance supports the wine industry’s new direction and the focus on marketing local products to sustain Ontario’s farming communities.
The Ontario Greenbelt Alliance also encourages all Ontarians to buy VQA wine, made from 100% Ontario grown grapes. Better yet, we suggest you visit an Ontario winery to buy 100% Ontario wine, and stop at one of the local fruit stands on your way to pick up some of the fresh produce grown in the region.
Learn more:
Letter in St. Catherine’s Standard from Kim Craitor, MPP for Niagara Falls
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2489508
Letter in St. Catherine’s Standard letter from Jim Young, Chairman, Angels Gate Winery Beamsville
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2509352