N.S. wine industry representatives suggest changes coming to controversial program

Those for and against a controversial new wine support program left an almost two-hour meeting with Premier Tim Houston on Monday night happy to have discussed the issue in person and confident the two sides can live with possible changes. 

"The meeting was good," said Karl Coutinho, chair of the board at Wine Growers of Nova Scotia, a group that represents family-run wineries in the province.

"It was our first chance, from the farm wineries' perspective, to sit down with the premier and his team and I think it was a great, positive first step."

Although reluctant to provide details, Coutinho suggested changes would be made to the program, which was first discussed with his group just days before its launch in January.

"I think the premier will be announcing some of the stuff [Tuesday,] so we'll kind of go from there," said Coutinho.

"No, I don't wanna talk," said John Peller, president of Peller Estates, following the meeting. The company stands to gain the most from the new program.

The commercial winemaker and bottler did say the meeting was a good get-together between wine representatives, bureaucrats, the premier and two members of his cabinet, Agriculture Minister Greg Morrow and Finance Minister Allan MacMaster.

"We had a great chat," said Peller. "Things are good. Everybody's happy and supportive with each other."

Asked if this was a dispute the wineries could work through, Peller said "one hundred percent. No doubt about it."

Houston convened the meeting with representatives from Nova Scotia's wine industry in an effort to douse a political fire ignited by his government's creation of a new program to help some in the industry, but not others.

The new commercial wine support program, which farm wineries say could be "catastrophic" to their operations, provides a subsidy that bottling companies can use to import cheaper grape juice to produce more wine.

Winemakers, who grow their own grapes, worry it will mean commercial producers will be able to charge less, undercutting a wine industry that's only decades old.

Accusations of lobbying by friends

They've been told the provincial government expects to shell out between $6 million and $12 million per year through the program.

Opposition politicians and the Wine Growers of Nova Scotia have accused Houston of creating the program as a result of lobbying by a friend and political supporter, something Houston has repeatedly and vehemently denied.

The premier's office offered few details of the meeting, other than to provide a list of who was invited and to say about two dozen people took part.

Catherine Klimek, Houston's press secretary, said she could not say whether the premier would have something to say on the issue on Tuesday.