Free the Wine!

Free the Wine is a grassroots coalition of wine lovers who believe that the BC Government needs to reform our arcane wine laws and high wine taxes in order to support our wine and hospitality industries. We are dedicated to implementing more reasonable wine laws and to reducing wine taxation to sensible levels. Here are our objectives:

1. Reasonable Wine Taxes - BC has some of the highest taxes on wine in the world - most of them are hidden in the bottle price. If you buy a lower priced bottle of imported wine in a BC Liquor Store, you are paying taxes of about 135%. Wine is good for you when used as intended in moderation. By contrast, no amount of soda pop is good for you and it is taxed at 12%. We think the taxes on wine are way too high. Read More ...
2. Fair Rules for Wine Retailers - BC's various wine retailers are stifled by inconsistent rules governing the way they sell wine, the prices that they charge, and hidden taxes and fees. It's only fair that all retailers get a consistent set of sensible rules. Read More ...
3. Fair Rules for Restaurants - BC's restaurants have to pay full retail price for the wine that they serve. Restaurants also have to buy all of their wine from a single designated government liquor store. That's why restaurant wine prices are so high. Restaurants should be allowed to buy wine at wholesale prices and from whomever they choose. Read More ...
4. Fair Rules for Restaurant Customers - It's not permitted in BC for a customer to bring their own wine into a restaurant even if it was bought from a government liquor store. What's the harm in that? We should be allowed to bring our own wine! It would also help if we didn't have to pay wine list prices that are artificially high (see item #3 above). Read More ...
5. Reasonable Import and Export Policies - If you try to import wine into BC beyond your meagre duty free allowance, you will be hit with taxes and fees at the border that total more than 100% of the retail cost of the wine to you. If you import wine into BC, you should pay a reasonable rate of tax just as if you had bought it within BC. At present, there is a negligible amount of BC wine exported to other provinces and countries. It is illegal (!) for BC wineries to ship wine to customers in other provinces. We need to negotiate trade agreements with other jurisdictions in order to encourage the export of BC wines and expand our wine industry. Read More ...

If you agree with Free the Wine's objectives, please join us by signing up on this site (to the left). It would also really help if you could contact your MLA and tell them that we need to reform BC's wine laws and taxation policies.