Deadline looms for interprovincial alcohol shipping deal as provinces lag on implementation

CTV's Harrison Shin takes a closer look at the challenges local breweries are facing selling their beer to customers from outside Manitoba.

With interprovincial trade barriers dominating debate over the Canadian economy, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is calling out provincial governments for their lack of progress on cross-border personal alcohol sales.

In July 2025, nine provinces signed a memorandum of understanding to allow direct-to-consumer alcohol shipments, letting Canadians purchase products from other provinces — if fully implemented. The MOU set a target implementation date of May 2026.

CFIB says only two provinces — Manitoba and New Brunswick — currently allow residents to purchase all Canadian alcohol products from other jurisdictions. Ontario and Nova Scotia have a similar agreement with each other, but in a limited capacity, while Alberta permits only direct-to-consumer wine shipments from British Columbia.

“We’re only six days away from the end of the month and we’ve really only had one additional province New Brunswick) fully implement direct-to-consumer shipment of alcohol product, so little movement from governments thus far,” said Keyli Loeppky, senior director of interprovincial trade with the organization.

There is a catch for Manitobans, however — while residents can purchase alcohol products from other provinces, local businesses cannot ship directly to out-of-province customers.

Colin Koop, co-owner of Devil May Care Brewing Company in Winnipeg, said that while the brewery focuses on local sales, out-of-province inquiries do come in.

“We’ve really gotten that question — (it’s) from Winnipeggers who used to live here and really enjoyed our beer and have asked us to ship to them,” he told CTV News.

In a statement, Manitoba Minister of Business, Mining, Trade and Job Creation Jamie Moses said the province continues to champion open interprovincial trade and is working to expand market access for local businesses.

“In the meantime, we will continue to champion Manitoba-made products and encourage Manitobans to support local,” reads the statement in part.

For Koop, when interprovincial trade does open up fully, he says he’ll be ready.

“If we were allowed to do it, we’d put an online store up — figure out our shipping model and how we could do that for customers.”