OTTAWA -- For an eastern Ontario alcohol producer, the COVID-19 pandemic is just one issue that’s causing sales to drop.
Peter Rainville is the founder of Flying Canoe Hard Cider, the first of its kind in the Ottawa region. Rainville tells CTV News Ottawa an ancient rule called the “Five Acre Rule” is hurting the business even more.
“Because we don’t have five acres according to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, we’re not permitted to have retail store authorization, which allows us to sell product from our facility and also to ship it across Ontario.”
The rule has a mysterious past, some stores saying it was from the prohibition era, while others say it came into effect in the 1970s.
It was written as local people were trying to sell wine and cider out of their homes, potentially hurting the profits of orchards and grape growers.
Rainville gets his juice from a local orchard about 20 minutes away, and doesn’t have five acres of his own to start a new orchard.
“Even if I had five acres and I planted trees right now, it would take five to six years to see those trees come to fruition,” said Rainville.
“And it’s not as simple as buying five acres or leasing five acres and putting a tree in each corner because there are certain criteria that you have to reach.”
Rainville adds “right now we’re sitting on almost 100 orders from people all over Ontario who are willing to support us but we cannot sell anything because we don’t have the five acres.”
Rainville has reached out to all levels of government, including Township of Edwardsburgh/Cardinal Mayor Pat Sayeau, to see if the rule can be changed. The issue is now in front of the Finance Minister.
“We want to see their business succeed. We call our township open for business and I do not want to lose this one. That is why when Pete called me I went right away to the MPs office to re-enforce this request,” said Sayeau.
“I’m hoping that if they can get this five acre criteria addressed that will also address him being able to sell from that location.”
Usually, Rainville would be shipping around 200 to 250 cases a week. Now he is only putting out around 25 cases, and cider is backing up in the pipeline.
“We have shipped everything that we can to every store that we can whether LCBO or grocery store, but now the pipeline is full and we have no place to go.”
The cider can be found at LCBO outlets across eastern Ontario, but the board has told suppliers to limit what they send as they have too much stock already.
With both COVID-19 and the five acre rule hampering his business, Rainville says he’s lost about 75 per cent of sales, and if it continues that could spell disaster.
“It’s going to put us in the same place that many other businesses are in right now. We’re struggling to be able to continue to generate revenue to pay the bills that we need to pay,” said Rainville.
“It’s difficult because we do give back probably about seven per cent of our gross revenue on top of all the other taxes we have to pay to help the community.”
“If we don’t get this rule changed we will be going out of business.”
