The situation facing Ontario’s VQA wineries was bad pre-COVID; it is now critical. Over 1/3 of family farm wineries are at risk of temporary or permanent closure.
What is the issue?
The Ontario government treats local VQA wines like foreign imports. That hikes the cost per bottle by 35%. No other wine-producing region in the world treats its producers that way.
Ontario also forces VQA producers to pay a 6.1% tax (in addition to HST) for every bottle sold on-site at wineries.
All told, levies, taxes and other charges DOUBLE the cost of every bottle of local VQA wine you buy at the LCBO.
These unfair taxes hurt small wineries’ bottom lines.
More than half are losing money. And more than a third of family farm wineries are at risk of temporary or permanent closure.
An amazing industry and an entire way of life are at risk.
The Facts
COVID+
COVID-related closures have taken a huge toll on Ontario’s local wineries.
Yet provincial policies continue to favour foreign competition and their government’s treasuries.
It also taxes local wines like international imports and charges a 6.1% surtax on every bottle sold at wineries.
This didn’t make sense before COVID. It makes even less sense now.
Let’s get through this together.
Help us get tax fairness for local wines in November’s provincial budget.