The Canadian Wine Supercluster: An Economic Engine examines the combined impact of Canada’s regional wine clusters across six wine producing provinces: British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. It highlights the sector’s growing national integration and outlines policy actions that could unlock its full economic potential.

The white paper provides a policy road map to unlocking nearly $4 billion in economic potential, guided by federal priorities on reducing internal trade barriers and rural development.

“Wine is more than an agricultural product, it underpins a broad, place-based value chain that supports manufacturing, tourism, transportation and cultural industries,” said Dan Paszkowski, president and CEO of Wine Growers Canada (WGC). “The Canadian wine sector also generates significant strategic spillovers, driving tourism, innovation, domestic and export sales and sustained growth in rural communities across the country.”

The report estimates that the wine industry directly contributes $3.2 billion to Canada’s GDP, with an additional $6.9 billion generated through interconnected sectors, reinforcing its role as a stable, high value contributor to the Canadian economy. The study also highlights the opportunity presented by ongoing interprovincial trade reform. If Canadian wines were to reach a 51 percent domestic wine sales market share, the sector’s total annual GDP contribution could increase by $3.6 billion.

Despite strong performance and steady growth over the past decade, the report finds that Canada continues to lag leading wine producing countries that benefit from co-ordinated government industry strategies, long-term market development programs and fewer internal trade barriers.

The white paper identifies four priority policy areas where targeted government action could accelerate growth:

• Domestic and international market development
• Federal leadership in economic development co-ordination
• Enhancing sector competitiveness and investment conditions
• Capital investment and sustainability programs

“Canada’s wine industry is uniquely positioned to grow as a nationally connected supercluster,” said Del Rollo, chair of WGC. “By strengthening internal trade, supporting investment and improving market access, governments can help unlock the full economic potential of Canadian wine from coast to coast.”

About the Report

The Canadian Wine Supercluster: An Economic Engine provides a policy-ready framework to strengthen domestic growth, improve competitiveness and unlock long-term investment in Canada’s wine sector.

The wine industry offers a clear example. Despite producing world-class wines, premium Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) Canadian wines account for less than nine per cent of national sales, with half of Canada’s provinces seeing less than a two per cent market share. These barriers – imposed by provincial regulations – limit market access, stifle growth and restrict wine tourism, at a significant cost to the Canadian economy.

While progress has been made through initiatives like MP Dan Albas’ Bill C-311, which allowed personal interprovincial wine imports, and the recent federal-provincial task force on direct-to-consumer (DTC) shipping, a comprehensive national framework is still needed. The March 5 First Ministers’ meeting marked a step forward, with nine of 10 provinces and one territory committing to allow interprovincial DTC alcohol sales. However, action is needed to implement this agreement uniformly and ensure that DTC taxes and levies are fair, transparent and do not undermine the competitiveness of Canadian wines.

New Brunswick has already set a positive example, passing legislation in late March 2025 to allow interprovincial DTC alcohol sales. Other provinces must now follow suit, creating a cohesive national framework that allows Canadians to access wines from any winery across the country.

Breaking down these barriers isn’t just about wine. It’s about creating new economic opportunities – new revenue streams, thousands of jobs and stimulating innovation across various sectors. Canada’s wine industry has the potential to become a significant economic driver and we must seize this opportunity to strengthen our economy.

The path forward requires a “Team Canada” approach, where all levels of government work together to remove trade barriers and educate consumers about the benefits of local products. By promoting Canadian wines and encouraging consumer loyalty, we can build a more connected, resilient economy.

Now is the time for bold action. Leaders like Minister Anand and Premiers Ford, Holt, and Houston have shown the way. However, the rest of Canada must act swiftly to remove trade barriers and unlock the full potential of Canadian businesses. Together, we can create a stronger, more self-sufficient Canada, ready to meet global challenges head-on.

The choice is ours. Let’s choose Canada.

What many people don’t realize is that, within the world’s premier wine regions, the wine industry operates as the catalyst upon which economic fortunes rise and fall.

This is because wine industries serve as magnets for investment due to their ability to create and connect economic clusters of industries that thrive in their presence. Clusters are areas of intense economic activity made up of companies, academic institutions and non-profit organizations that boost innovation and growth in a particular industry.

All around the world, wine industries serve as the tide that can lift their local economies, providing an economic uplift to the industries that often cluster around them, which include transportation infrastructure, post-secondary education, housing and development, advanced manufacturing, farming and agriculture, tourism, food and hospitality, and culture and entertainment.

The range of climates and topographies that are required to grow grapes for premium-quality wine are so specific that only 0.53 per cent of the world’s arable land is used for vineyards. Coupled with the long-term investment horizon associated with winemaking (for example, it takes three years for a newly planted vine to become commercially productive), wine industries are effectively fixed in the regions in which they reside. Unlike automobile manufacturers, which can relocate production facilities with relative ease, when wine producers invest capital into their operations in the form of newly planted vines or winemaking facilities, those investments remain in the region for decades.

When people travel to places like Italy and France, it’s well understood by those countries that tourists are visiting to experience their wine, food and culture. As the wine industry grows, so does the number of restaurants and experiential offerings in the surrounding area. This growth, in turn, fuels more tourism and innovation, enabling wine producers to scale up their operations and increasingly hire the specialized workers needed for wine production.

The need for specialized labour then sparks the demand for industry-specific programs at post-secondary institutions, along with transportation infrastructure to facilitate more traffic to the region, and the development of housing for those who relocate to the area to live and work. On and on, this cycle of economic development goes, reaching its zenith when the private and public sectors within the cluster begin to collaborate on a holistic strategy for economic growth. With every industry in the cluster working in concert, the effect of the cluster intensifies, further accelerating the economic growth of the region.

This cluster concept had long been tacitly understood within Ontario’s wine industry. However, it wasn’t until this past year that it was credibly validated. Key leaders from across Ontario’s wine sector, including Wine Growers Ontario (WGO), Ontario Craft Wineries (OCW) and Tourism Partnership of Niagara, joined forces to partner with Deloitte on the development of an economic impact study titled The Niagara Cluster: Ontario’s Untapped Economic Engine to model and understand the growth drivers behind the world’s leading wine economies and how they could best be leveraged in Ontario.

In addition to the rare presence of farmland that’s suitable for vineyards, the Deloitte report’s global scan identified several other critical conditions that must be present for a wine region to thrive to the point where an economic cluster will develop around it. Referred to as “global best practices,” these conditions from the world’s premier wine regions include:

1. Domestic wines maintaining a dominant market share position compared to foreign wines.
2. A connected strategy between the wine and tourism industries that enables the development of world-class tourism offerings.
3. Tax policies that incentivize investment into the wine sector.
4. Capital support programs that incentivize investment into the agriculture and hospitality sectors.

“The most successful wine and tourism regions around the world are investing capital and growing their domestic share because their domestic industry is a priority and is supported by policies that incentivize investment,” said Paul Speck, president of Henry of Pelham Family Estate Winery and OCW member.

“Ontario wines already compete and win on the global stage, so working together to turn Niagara into a world-class wine and tourism region to drive significant economic growth is within reach.”

John Peller, Andrew Peller Ltd.

In Ontario, the wine industry is on the precipice of transformational growth, but greater support is needed from the provincial government for this potential to be realized. For example, Ontario is the most heavily-taxed wine-producing jurisdiction in the world and is subject to tax policies that are not observed in any other wine producing region. This includes British Columbia, Canada’s other major wine-producing region. Just as critically, as opposed to championing local products, the policies that govern how alcohol is retailed in Ontario work to provide foreign wine producers with competitive advantages over domestic producers, making it more difficult for Ontario’s wineries to win in their own backyard.

“Ontario wines already compete and win on the global stage, so working together to turn Niagara into a world-class wine and tourism region to drive significant economic growth is within reach,” said John Peller, president of Andrew Peller Ltd. and WGO member. “What’s required are supporting policies and best practices that both B.C. and leading global wine regions adhere to and where Ontario needs to catch-up.”

Although there are interconnected pockets of wine-producing regions across southern Ontario, the vast majority of grape growing and wine production takes place in the region of Niagara, hence the title of the Deloitte report. As stated in the Deloitte report, should Ontario’s government work together with the wine industry to develop and enact the policy support that’s desperately needed for it to reach its full potential, the Niagara Cluster stands to benefit from an economic uplift of $8 billion in a single generation. As seen from the world’s leading wine regions, $8 billion is merely scratching the surface.