Ron Kubek

A Summerland winery owner is advocating for changes to how alcoholic beverages are sold across Canada.

Ron Kubek of Lightning Rock Winery recently launched a petition urging the federal government to remove barriers that prevent businesses like his from selling directly to customers in other provinces.

This effort is linked to new restrictions impacting Canadian alcohol exports to the United States, highlighting the challenges faced by many producers here at home.

While some provinces have taken steps toward direct-to-consumer sales, Kubek emphasizes that provincial liquor board systems still create obstacles.

For Lightning Rock Winery in Summerland, losing access to the US market comes at a steep cost.

Owner Ron Kubek.

That'd be a hundred and fifty, two hundred thousand dollars.

For a small winery like us, that's a big hit.

And unfortunately, uh, M- Mr. Trump has, uh, now escalated it even further.

Uh, originally there was a 50% tariff, so that a winery like Lightning Rock, uh, Winery in Summerland, Ron Kubek, uh, it was one of those growing markets.

He actually said to me, "Dan, it's, it's less damaging for me to take a 50% tariff than it is to, to send my wine to other jurisdictions, because they have all the sorts of markups." And, and, and despite, uh, all the threats we've had from, from, uh, President Trump, uh, to our economy, the provinces, what do they, what do they agree on? Well, they'll drop, they say, the inter-provincial trade barriers, but they wanna add registrations, Mike.

They want to have more control.