Canada: Nova Scotia wine growers walk away from government aid negotiations for industry

Published Sep 25, 2024

Tridge summary

A working group tasked with supporting Nova Scotia's wine industry has lost its co-chair, who resigned due to dissatisfaction with the provincial government's proposals, which were deemed incomplete and unfair by the wine growers. The government's proposals included subsidies for commercial wine bottlers, a move opposed by wine and grape growers as it could subsidize foreign wines and undermine local operations. The working group has requested a meeting with the premier to address their concerns, and the wine growers are considering a public boycott of products containing foreign subsidized content and ceasing to provide their wine products for provincial government trade missions.

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Original content

HALIFAX — The working group examining support for Nova Scotia’s wine industry has lost its co-chair, who resigned this week calling talks with the provincial government an “enormous disappointment.” Premier Tim Houston created the industry working group last spring after he paused a contentious subsidy program for two commercial wine bottlers in response to outcry from wine growers who said the aid would undercut their operations. In a resignation letter sent to Houston on Monday, Karl Coutinho, board chair of Wine Growers Nova Scotia, said government proposals presented at a meeting last week left farmers feeling “discouraged, disheartened and disillusioned.” Calling the meeting "an enormous disappointment,” Coutinho wrote, “After eight months of discussion the government presented the group with proposals that were incomplete and had the appearance of being written on the back of a napkin." He described senior bureaucrats as seeming “distant, unprepared and borderline hostile.” ...

Source: Timescolonist