B.C. should make it easier and cheaper for small-scale distilleries to sell their whisky, gin and other spirits, NDP leader Adrian Dix says.
"We have an opportunity to grow a distinctly B.C. industry here," Dix said Wednesday, pointing to the success of B.C.'s wine industry when its rules were similarly changed in the 1980s.
An NDP government would allow artisan distilleries to make direct sales to restaurants and liquor businesses, as well as cut the markup charged by the province's Liquor Distribution Branch, Dix said.
"We have a model that worked for wine and can work for spirits," Dix said.
There are seven artisan distilleries in B.C., including three on 91原创 Island.
The NDP proposal comes just weeks before the Liberal government is expected to unveil new regulations for the craft distillery industry.
"Their announcement was basically pretty much verbatim what we're asking for from the government," said Tyler Dyck, CEO of Okanagan Spirits Distillery and spokesperson for the Artisan Distillers Guild of B.C.
Artisan distillers have been pushing government to amend liquor regulations to follow the path taken with wineries decades ago.
Wineries are allowed to sell both at their gate and directly to other licence holders like restaurants, bars and liquor stores without having to go through the Liquor Distribution Board.
Artisan distillers would also like to see the government mark-up on spirits cut from its current 170 per cent of the wholesale price. The government marks up wine 123 per cent.
Craft distillers should have the same markup as wineries and be exempt from fees when they sell on their own property, Dix said.
"Fabulous, it would make a real difference as far as our profitability is concerned," said Bryan Murray, owner of Victoria Spirits.
"At this point I doubt if any distillers are making any profit in the province, and this could significantly change things."
The B.C. government is readying its own changes within six to eight weeks, said the minister responsible for liquor, Rich Coleman.
If a small distiller can use 100 per cent B.C. ingredients, it will be able to ship directly to bars, restaurants and private liquor stores without markup, Coleman said.
He accused Dix of "trying to pander to the market."
Dix said the NDP will only require an artisan distillery use have a 50 per cent B.C. product, which would still encourage a distillery to buy local potatoes, grains, apples, cherries and pears that can be used to make vodkas, whisky, gins and other spirits.
Distilleries think the 50 per cent made-in-B.C. threshold is more realistic because some ingredients, such as herbs used in certain types of gin and absinthe, don't even grow in B.C., said Dyck.
Coleman said B.C. wineries have to produce 100 per cent B.C. products, and so should artisan distillers.
"They can do it, they just have to decide what industry they want to be in," Coleman said of the distillers. "It's the same thing with wine."
Peter Kimmerly, cofounder of Island Spirits on Hornby Island, said he's not an NDP supporter but likes that party's proposal.
"I've talked to a whole lot of politicians and individually they are all supportive but they can't quite make the leap to do something concrete about it," said Kimmerly, whose company produces Phrog Gin, Phrog Vodka and 10 other products.
The distillery business is on the verge of being unviable because of taxes, he said. A $100 bottle of wine means an $88 sale for a garden gate winery after the HST, but only $24 for a distillery because of government markup and taxes, Kimmerly added.
The problem is government doesn't want to lose that tax money from distilleries, said Kimmerly.
"Booze is awfully political in B.C."
