Wine industry players are looking for ways to support the entire NS sector, says the Prime Minister

Groups representing both Nova Scotia’s agricultural and commercial wine sectors are working to find ways the province can equitably support the entire industry, Premier Tim Houston said Thursday as he looks to move away from a controversial – and now suspended – subsidy to large-scale bottlers labels.

Both working groups were formed in April, a month after news of subsidies for commercial wine bottlers sparked a firestorm of controversy among Tories. Houston said each of the new groups met four times to gather input on the path forward.

“There’s also an ongoing strategic assessment of the wine industry that will help develop, you know, an equitable support program,” Houston told reporters remotely after a cabinet meeting in the Annapolis Valley.

In March, wine industry officials argued that subsidies to their commercial counterparts, which could be worth millions of dollars, created an unfair advantage that put their industry at risk.

While Houston has said changes to the way the government supports the industry are necessary in light of Australia’s international trade complaint, it paused grants to Devonian Coast and Peller Estates this month and pledged to engage all industry players.

Questions regarding the payment of subsidies

Opposition leaders said they were glad everyone was sitting down and talking, but they still had questions about the amount paid to Devonian and Peller before the commercial program was halted.

“If (the Prime Minister) had met with the farmed wine sector before making this decision, he could have made a better decision and potentially not made a decision that would have had a negative impact on the farmed wine sector which is so crucial to our rural economy,” Liberal Leader Zach Churchill said to reporters in Halifax.

NDP Leader Claudia Chender told reporters she remains concerned about the government’s refusal to say how much money commercial bottlers received.

“I have huge concerns about the fact that the government wrote two blank checks behind closed doors, without tender and without transparency, and we still don’t know how much money it was.”

Nova Scotia wine industry workers were present at Province House in March when Premier Tim Houston announced his government was pausing a subsidy program for commercial wine bottlers. (Michael Gorman/CBC)

In March, CBC News received information indicating that commercial bottlers could receive between $6 million and $12 million a year under the suspended program. Houston said at the time that the amount paid was “outside of these numbers,” but declined to provide further details.

On Thursday, the Prime Minister said he believed it should be possible to quickly find a solution that is fair for everyone and in line with international trade rules.

There is no clear timeline for how long this work will take, but Houston said “no one wants to wait on this.”

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