Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery in Vernon (photo by Liam Verster / Vernon Matters)

By Liam Verster

Supporting Local Industry

Vernon Chamber renews call for craft distiller caps to be lifted, make products more available

May 26, 2025 | 8:55 AM

The agency that represents local businesses has redoubled its call for the province to support craft distillers.

In February, the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce called for the B.C. Government to make changes so distillers could be competitive and fill gaps left by U.S. products in the ongoing trade war with the country south of the border.

The Chamber has doubled down on that call, asking the production cap limit of 50,000 litres be reevaluated, and that access to B.C. Liquor Stores be expanded so craft distillers can make more of their products and have them stocked in places where they be more easily accessed by the public.

“These are common sense modernizations that should have been corrected months ago,” Dan Proulx, General Manager of the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce, stated in a release.

“While we talk about interprovincial trade barriers, we have the most control over our own regulations that are holding back homegrown producers. If we want to support local, we need to start by removing these unnecessary roadblocks. Can you imagine what would happen when interprovincial trade opens and the B.C. government still hasn’t removed these barriers that penalize domestic growth and leave B.C.’s Craft Distillers unable to export into those new markets without putting themselves into financial ruin? It would be catastrophic.”

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The Chamber said it would continue to advocate for these changes to support craft distillers in British Columbia.