Shuswap winery toasts Alberta’s decision to lift B.C. wine ban

Feb 22, 2018 | 3:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — A northern Shuswap winery is raising a glass to the Alberta government for lifting its ban on imported B.C. wine.

Premier Rachel Notley made the move after B.C.’s minority NDP government said it was filing a constitutional reference case on the issue.

“I think it’s great news for all of the industry because this industry is employing a lot of people,” says Jake Ootes, owner of Celista Winery. “And while we’re not personally affected to a great degree by any ban on importing wine into Alberta, I know that some of the operators in the Okanagan and perhaps some of the smaller ones would be severely affected by this and have been greatly affected by this.”

He adds the industry is contributing a tremendous amount of money through tourism and also through sales and taxation to the provincial economy.

However while pleased with Alberta’s decision Ootes is less than pleased with Victoria.

“There’s still an ongoing effort by the B.C. government to further look at the pipeline issue and my position is: it’s been dealt with and this is a federal jurisdiction,” Ootes says. “Sure, they can apply the constitutionality of it but they’re just trying to go to their base and say, ‘Look what we’re doing.’”

Moving forward, he says there could be some light at the end of the tunnel should the B.C. and Alberta government’s decide to put pressure on the federal government to help reduce inter-provincial trade barriers when it comes to wine.