Supermarket wine sales to expand in Ontario

Thesale of wine is coming soon to more Ontario supermarkets.

Government and wineindustry sources tellCBC News the province plans to allow private wine kiosks in70 supermarkets as early as this fall, eventuallyreaching150 grocery stores in future years.

• 'If beer can be in supermarkets, wine can be in supermarkets'
• 58 Ontario grocery stores start selling beer

"We will have more to say later this month," said KelseyIngram, press secretary to Finance Minister CharlesSousa, in an email statement on Thursday.

The Kathleen Wynne government has beenindicating for more than a year that it was moving toward liberalizingwine sales, but declined to move ahead in last year's budget when it announced plans to allow beer sales from supermarkets.

"In many ways, it is a more complex issue than the beer distribution system as we must respect trade obligations," said Ingram.

The vast majority of private wine shops in Ontario are ownedby two large wine-producing conglomerates, selling almostexclusively their own products. Many of theforeign-owned Wine Rack and Canadian-ownedWine Shop locations are already insidesupermarkets.

The organization that represents Ontario's smaller, independently-owned wineries calls the proposed changes "very positive."

"Consumers will have access to many new and exciting products that they wouldn't be able to buy unless they drove to Ontario's wine country," said Richard Linley, president of the Wine Council of Ontario, in an email.

The group includes some 100 wineries andhas long been seeking changes to the wine retailing system in the province.

In December, Wynneannounced that 58grocery stores throughout the province had begun selling beer, under strict rules.That number will increaseto about 160 stores carrying beer in 2016. The province plans to eventually allow beer salesat about450 Ontario grocery stores.

The coming reformswould also allowcider sales from the approvedgrocery stores. TheLCBO will retain its monopoly on selling spirits.