How alcohol sales explain Canada’s internal trade problem

Cheryl Sutherland· Host0:00

[music] If you walk around your local liquor store, like the LCBO in Ontario or the BCL in British Columbia, you'll see wines from France, South Africa, Italy, whiskey from Ireland, Japan, or local distilleries. What you're not likely to see is bottles from other provinces. And if you wanna order alcohol yourself from a producer in another province, you might actually be breaking the law. That's because we have a complicated system in Canada that means a lot of goods, including alcohol, often can't be sold across provincial or territorial boundaries. This all comes back to interprovincial trade and the many barriers that exist between provinces and territories. [music] Canada has been trying to move away from economic dependence on the US, and politicians have been trying to make it easier to sell within Canada. Alcohol sales, especially ones going directly to consumers, were supposed to be a bit of a litmus test for Prime Minister Mark Carney's vision of having one Canadian economy. But the provinces and territories missed their deadline for an agreement over the weekend. Today, we have Jason Kirby on the show. He's a staff reporter for The Globe's Report on Business. He'll explain how alcohol sales work in Canada, why it's been so hard to get bottles moving across the country, and what it means for our economy that governments haven't been able to solve this one small