Breaking News: Bill C-311 passes committee stage review

Originally published on the DaninOttawa.com on April 4, 2012.

Earlier this evening the Standing Committee on Finance after hearing from another great panel of industry experts and stakeholders voted unanimously to approve clause by clause review and send Bill C-311 back to the House of Commons for 3rd reading. More simply put, Bill C-311 and ending wine prohibition in Canada has cleared another Parliamentary hurdle and is that much close to ending over 80 years of wine prohibition in Canada.

I would like to sincerely thank today’s witnesses who came from all across our great country and shared differing but important perspectives on the Canadian wine industry  and what Bill C-311 can do to enhance it. With today’s extremely positive news the Bill will now be sent back to Parliament where ultimately MP’s from across Canada can hopefully decide to move C-311 on to the Senate and ultimately Royal Assent.

As much as today is a very rewarding day on a personal level, hearing directly from the Canadian wine industry and related stakeholders over the past two weeks during committee stage review has been a very informative and worthwhile experience. It has also been very heartening to see such strong support across all party lines. The level of support from MP’s across all party lines has been excellent and I can say that for every wine-producing region in Canada their local MP has been behind them in moving C-311 forward.

I will post a further update on C-311 later this week but wanted to pass on this great  news to those who are closely following this issue.