SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
October 26, 2023 09:00AM

I appreciate that because it gives me an opportunity again to talk about the wine industry, which is the small- and-medium-sized wineries. They are being hit with a 6.1% tax on the wine that they sell in their stores, which is an unfair tax. The reason why it’s unfair is because Australia, California and all those other wine producers don’t pay the tax, so it’s an unfair advantage. If you’re looking at cutting red tape, why would you not cut this 6.1% of an unfair tax to our wine industry so that we’d be able to use our grapes that are being grown by our grape growers and put that into our bottles of wine?

If you’re going to come into our market, I firmly believe that it should be a level playing field. I believe the Conservatives should feel that, so supporting getting rid of the 6.1% tax I think should be easy for your government, quite frankly. I’ve had people say to me, “I can’t believe that the NDP is actually trying to call for cutting taxes.” But I had that kind of thing when I talked to the farmers in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

I appreciate your question because it’s important. Again, to my colleagues who are here: Support local, support Ontario and support the wine industry because 18,000 jobs are tied to that wine industry—

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