{"id":29804,"date":"2015-01-22T09:57:06","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T14:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=29804"},"modified":"2015-01-22T09:57:06","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T14:57:06","slug":"rumours-of-privatization-in-ontarios-liquor-control-monopoly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2015\/01\/22\/rumours-of-privatization-in-ontarios-liquor-control-monopoly\/","title":{"rendered":"Rumours of privatization in Ontario’s liquor control monopoly?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the latest issue of Michael Pinkus Wine Review<\/em><\/a>, Michael talks about the hints and portents (dealing with the Ontario government requires a certain amount of Kremlinological observation skills) that a tiny measure of privatization may be coming:<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a rumour in the wind that a certain amount of privatization is coming to Ontario (wouldn\u2019t that be nice), but I wouldn\u2019t get my hopes up about it just yet \u2013 no time line has been given and I am sure that \u2018more study\u2019 is necessary \u2026 and of course, if track record is any indication, this government will find some way to either screw it up or make it such a complicated piece of legislation that it\u2019ll take years to get through all the red tape behind it. I once heard Jerry Agar, of NewsTalk 1010<\/em> fame, say (and I\u2019m paraphrasing here) \u2018if you want something screwed up get government involved\u2019; he\u2019s a proponent of the private sector because they can do it more efficiently than government if only \u2018the man\u2019 would just get outta the way \u2026 I would have to agree with him here. So far the government has made a mess of our liquor system that even repressed, despotic and 3rd world countries have better access to alcohol then we do.<\/p>\n

Sadly, I believe it might be too little too late for some of Ontario wineries who have suffered this long, but might not be around to see the light at the end of the tunnel (if and\/or when it comes). Yes, this might be the end of the line for a number of our precious wineries and we only have ourselves to blame for their demise. They have been as vocal as any sector, crying for help, not necessarily a hand out (which the grape growers seem to get) as much as a hand up \u2013 basically they\u2019ve been pleading with each government: \u201cplease give us access to (our own) market (at the very least) and we\u2019ll show you what we can do\u201d, all to no avail.<\/p>\n

Why the pessimistic attitude? Let\u2019s look at the facts. It takes some rather deep pockets to own a winery in Ontario, that or a good credit rating, because money is the number one thing required to open the doors. But making it is more of an uphill battles then in any other business I this province. Post-1993, when the majority of the wineries around today opened their doors, your cellar door is the only place you can sell your wine \u2013 sure you could tap into the LCBO and the restaurant market, but that\u2019s it. And although recent federal regulations have been lifted regarding the selling and especially shipping of wine across the country, many provinces have yet to enact their own legislation governing the practice, hence leaving the entire topic, not to mention hundreds of wineries, in limbo, unable to tap the rest of the country as a market for fear of breaking the law. With so few avenues to sell home-grown wine the government has basically handcuffed the industry \u2013 let alone the number of asinine rules that govern the industry from within (more on that next time) \u2013 it has all been put in place it would seem, so that wineries are destined to fail; that they remain open is a testament to their resolve and passion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the latest issue of Michael Pinkus Wine Review, Michael talks about the hints and portents (dealing with the Ontario government requires a certain amount of Kremlinological observation skills) that a tiny measure of privatization may be coming: There\u2019s a rumour in the wind that a certain amount of privatization is coming to Ontario (wouldn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6,84,9,131],"tags":[660,395,87,394],"class_list":["post-29804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bureaucracy","category-cancon","category-government","category-law","category-wine","tag-deregulation","tag-lcbo","tag-ontario","tag-privatization"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-7KI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29804"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29805,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29804\/revisions\/29805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}