Premier Kathleen Wynne made the announcement regarding wine sales Thursday at a Toronto grocery store.
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Grocers eager to sell B.C. wine, cider and sake on store shelves will be able to bid in April to get one of six licences from the B.C. government.
About 70 supermarkets will be selling wine by this coming fall, and that’s only the start.
Grocery stores will have to sell wine for at least $10.95 per bottle, a price floor that the LCBO, Wine Store and Wine Rack are not subject to.
Only grocery stores that meet strict criteria will be eligible to bid, and they’ll have to go through a registration and pre-screening process before paying a $25,000 deposit for every licence they are seeking.
Additionally, fruit wines and craft cider will be included in a program that allows Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) Ontario wines to be sold at farmers markets.
The timeline will ultimately be up to government but recommendations from Ed Clark, the former TD Bank executive turned premier’s adviser on government assets, suggest that by 2025 Ontario could see beer and wine sold in 300 grocery stores, with a further 150 selling beer only. Now when they sell their own product at their distillery they get a commission of 13 per cent.
The changes will help both foreign and domestic wine producers, added Clark.
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Ontario now has more than 240 wineries, with VQA sales in the province totalling $288 million in 2014-15, a 66 per cent increase in five years.
