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From: acton@ubc-ean.CDN (Donald Acton)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: wine and swine
Message-ID: <852@ubc-ean.CDN>
Date: Sun, 28-Oct-84 15:21:58 EST
Article-I.D.: ubc-ean.852
Posted: Sun Oct 28 15:21:58 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Oct-84 18:42:06 EST
Organization: UBC EAN, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 42


  While reading the Globe and Wail the other day I came across a rather 
disturbing piece of information concerning the pricing of wine in Ontario.
This article states that there are three levels of provincal tax on wine based
on the wine's origin. I don't recall the exact figures but they are something 
like the following. 
      1) 75%  tax if the wine is from Ontario
      2) 125% tax if the wine is from another province in Canada
      3) 175% tax if the wine is from outside of Canada 
  I know that in BC that BC wines are taxed at a lower rate than wines 
from out of the country but I don't know what the taxing policy is on other 
provincal wines.  The disturbing point in the above taxation scheme is that
other provincal wines are taxed differently than Ontario wine. ( Are the 
wines from other parts of Canada and for that matter the rest of the world
so superior on a price/taste basis that the only way Ontario wines can compete 
is to have foreign wines taxed out of reach?) Who benifits from a taxation 
policy like the one described above?  It certainly isn't the consumers since
if they prefer a non-Ontarionain wine they pay an extra premium.  Is it the 
Ontario wineries (sp?) and if it is the wineries why are consumers asked to 
subsidize them? Is it the Ontario grape farmer?  Such taxation schemes only 
serve to give the impression that a certain industry is viable and competitive
when in fact it isn't. This taxation policy also invites retaliatory action
from other provincal governments so that even more consumers lose. 
   These government surtax/taxation schemes are unfortunately not limited 
to the wine industry. I beleive that in Quebec a similar policy is followed
with respect to pork. A pig can be raised, slaughtered and shipped to Quebec 
from Alberta more cheaply than if the pig had started its life in Quebec. But 
the Quebec government does one of the following two things to support the pork
industry: (I am sorry I can't recall which it is)
    1) It subsidizes directly the price of the grain (from western Canada)
       used in the feeding of pigs.
    2) It taxes non-Quebec pork such that Quebec pork is cheaper. 
Once again the consumers are the losers since they pay for this either directly
each time they purchase pork or through their provincal taxes. In addition the 
pork farmers of Alberta lose a substantail market and some of them probably 
end up going bankrupt. 
   Surely individual provinces don't need to adopt taxation policies and 
quotas that discriminate against fellow Canadians. There really isn't any
point to us being one country if we all act like independent nations.

    Donald Acton
    acton@ubc-ean