Update On The Interprovincial Shipment Of Liquor: Ontario Restricts Importation Of Out-Of-Province Liquor; British Columbia Permits Personal Importation Of Liquor.

In June 2019, Parliament passed amendments to the Importation of Intoxicating Liquor Act that remove all federal restrictions on the interprovincial shipping of liquor. The provinces are still entitled to enact constitutional laws that govern liquor within the province, but they cannot directly regulate interprovincial shipping of liquor, as that is a federal matter. They are, however, entitled to govern the supply of liquor within the province, which may have incidental effects on interprovincial shipping. Several provinces have now responded to this change in the federal liquor-shipping framework.

In July 2019, British Columbia announced a new policy that permits individuals to import both domestic and international liquor from another province on their person and for personal use. This makes it legal for individuals to physically shop at retail outlets in Alberta and bring their purchases back into the province of British Columbia. The new policy does not, however, permit interprovincial e-commerce shipments.

Shortly after the federal changes, Ontario promulgated new regulations focused entirely on the importation of liquor into the province. While Ontario previously governed importation of liquor into the province via policy, there is now a new regulation called "Importation of Liquor Into Ontario", Ontario Regulation 198/19 (amending Regulation 718 of the Revised

Regulations of Ontario, 1990), that has been designed to address liquor importation. The new regulation is promulgated under the Ontario Liquor Licence Act to clarify the meaning of s. 33.1(1)(c) of that act, which states that no person shall possess liquor in Ontario unless, inter alia, the liquor was imported into Ontario in accordance with the regulations. The new regulation provides the circumstances that permit the importation of liquor into Ontario. The most important restriction for the domestic liquor industry is found in s. 3.1(2), which states that liquor may be imported into Ontario if "[t]he liquor is imported into Ontario from another province or territory of Canada by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, or under its authority." This section explicitly restricts interprovincial shipment of liquor.

The Ontario regulation is governed by the framework for liquor regulation established in R. v. Comeau, 2018 SCC 15, and Air Canada v. Ontario (Liquor Control Board), [1997] 2 S.C.R. 581. Those cases provide that a law of general application that regulates the supply of...