Farm wine reps feeling optimistic following meeting with Houston

Representatives for the Nova Scotia farm wine sector say they left a meeting with Premier Tim Houston on Tuesday feeling optimistic and hopeful about their future following several weeks of uncertainty.

Geena Luckett, co-owner of Luckett Vineyards and vice-chair of Wine Growers Nova Scotia, said the premier committed to retaining the long-standing financial support model for farm wineries and commercial bottlers that is based on sales at Nova Scotia Liquor Corporationoutlets.

"We were still able to grow our market share and grow our industries under that programming as it was," Luckett said in an interview following the meeting at Houston's office.

"So we feel comfortable thatmoving forwardwith future investment focused on Nova Scotia inputs,that we're going to be able to continue that growth."

Luckett said Houston was also "very open" to future discussion about other ways to grow the industry.

In a statement, the premier called it "a productive meeting."

"I have always said that I am proud to support Nova Scotia's world-class wine industry and to work with them to grow in a competitive global market," the statement read.

"This includes strengthening and protecting the Nova Scotia brand identity so that Nova Scotians clearly understand which wines are truly local.We look forward to continuing these discussions."

Concern over unfair competitive advantage

The meeting was organized following a request from members of the farm winery sector.

They were concerned that a proposal from the government that would have increased financial support to both farm wineries and commercial bottlers would lead to a competitive imbalancebecause commercial bottlers use imported products that already receive subsidies from their country of origin.

The government offer would have seen the NSLC sales-based subsidy for farm wineries increase to 65 per cent from 50 per cent, while the support for commercial bottlers would have jumped to 35 per cent from seven per cent.

• N.S. wine growers walk away from government working group

• Nova Scotia government defends funding offer rejected by wine industry as 'fair'

The pushback prompted the government to hit pause on the proposal and Finance Minister Allan MacMaster said last week that the two sides would meet to discuss next steps.

One of the issues going into the meeting was a concern from winery operators that government officials misinterpreted recommendations from an expert report on how to provide increased assistance to the sector.

While the original government planwas to top-up amounts offered to farm wineries and commercial bottlers under the existing subsidy program, a co-author of the report later clarified for MacMaster that the recommendation was to retain the current support model based on NSLC sales and that any additional assistance be based on what operations contribute to the provincial economy outside of sales.

Luckett said she left the meeting feeling like that issue was resolved.

Along with Houston and representatives for farm wineries, the meetingincluded MacMaster, Agriculture Minister Greg Morrow, the premier's chief of staff and several other government officials.