Calls on the provincial government to make policy changes that would help unlock B.C.'s craft distillery industry are stacking up in Vernon. 

On Friday the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce issued its urging the province to remove regulatory barriers it said are preventing the growth of B.C. distillers while also stifling the economic potential of B.C.'s agricultural sector. 

The chamber is calling on the province to make two changes. The first is to expand distillers' access to BC Liquor Stores via policies that prioritize and promote B.C. spirits in these stores and offer customers more local options. The second is to eliminate the 50,000 litre per year production cap on B.C. distillers to allow them to meet market demand without facing "punitive" markups. 

鈥淭hese are common sense modernizations that should have been corrected months ago,鈥� said Dan Proulx, general manager of the chamber. 鈥淲hile we talk about inter-provincial trade barriers, we have the most control over our own regulations that are holding back homegrown producers. If we want to support local, we need to start by removing these unnecessary roadblocks.  Can you imagine what would happen when inter-provincial trade opens and the B.C. government still hasn鈥檛 removed these barriers that penalize domestic growth and leave B.C.鈥檚 craft distillers unable to export into those new markets without putting themselves into financial ruin? It would be catastrophic.鈥�

The chamber says despite the province's decision two months ago to remove all U.S. spirits from BC Liquor Store shelves, B.C. distilleries remain blocked by "outdated" barriers that the government has promised to change but hasn't.

This inaction, the chamber says, limits local distillers' ability to scale operations and secure shelf-space in government retail stores, while also causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost economic potential for the province. 

Tyler Dyck, CEO of Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery and president of the Craft Distillers Guild of BC, has been raising the issue of the production cap and lack of access to government stores in recent weeks.

鈥淲e have the capacity, the expertise, and the passion to fill BC Liquor Store shelves with premium, homegrown spirits,鈥� Dyck said in a press release. 鈥淏ritish Columbians want the option to buy local, and by modernizing these outdated policies, we can not only provide them with world-class locally made products but also drive economic growth and job creation right here in our province.鈥�

Speaking to The Morning Star, Dyck said B.C. craft distilleries are hit with a $280,000 penalty if they exceed the 50,000 litre cap, a penalty that repeats every 10,000 bottles that are in excess of the cap. 

"The just keep on kneecapping you, and if you work out the almost 10,000 bottles, you can never make up that difference," he said. "It's just obscene, it's not value-added local. This is something that (U.S. president) Donald Trump would put on a B.C. distillery to keep them on their knees."

Dyck has been the head of the distillery industry for 16 years and remembers when the production cap amount was decided on. He said it's since been admitted that 50,000 litres merely sounded like a reasonable level to policymakers at the time. 

"This production cap hurts farmers, it hurts B.C. producers, and it hurts B.C.'s economy. It has to be eliminated. There's no fiscal reality that capping production in your own province makes any sense," Dyck said. 

Dyck is also calling for distilleries to be given access to the Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) system that B.C. winemakers enjoy. Under the VQA system, the government takes 13 per cent of the sticker price of a bottle of wine sold in government liquor stores to ensure the wine is Canadian-made. For distilleries, Dyck said the government is taking 80 per cent. 

"VQA is just a value-added local program that they extend to B.C. wineries, and it allows B.C. wineries to keep more money in their pocket," Dyck said, adding the government needs to give distilleries something equivalent to VQA. 

Dyck previously spoke to The Morning Star about so-called , which he called the mislabelling of bottles of alcohol with maple leaf stickers that "dupe" consumers into thinking they're buying Canadian products.