Wine and interprovincial trade

If you have been vacationing in another province, say in B.C.'s Okanagan or Ontario's Niagara wine districts, you can now bring your favourite wines home with you. The federal government has amended the Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act, which governs the interprovincial and international trade of intoxicating liquors, allowing you to bring personal quantities of wine across provincial borders.

Subsection 3(2) of the Act was amended by adding the following exception to the restrictions contained in subsection 3(1):
(h) the importation of wine from a province by an individual, if the individual brings the wine or causes it to be brought into another province, in quantities and as permitted by the laws of the latter province, for his or her personal consumption, and not for resale or other commercial use.

Each province will determine how much wine will be considered "personalî consumption. In fact, provincial authorities still have the ability to limit legal consumption ages, set no-drinking areas and generally restrict access to alcohol in manners to which we have become accustomed in Canada.