Greetings!  My name is Richard, and I wanted to take a moment to thank you personally for taking the time to sign our change.org petition recently.  We were blown away by the response it got. More than 10,000 people just like you signed it and sent a strong signal to the Ontario government that we need to give our province’s family-farm, VQA wineries an even playing field to compete with the world. Right now, the people that produce the Ontario wines you love are being crushed by unfair taxes, including: A 35% tax burden on local VQA wines because the government treats them the same as imports in the LCBO A 6.1% surtax on bottles producers sell at the cellar door (yes, they pay taxes in addition to HST) In all, Ontario wineries pay more than $160+ million per year in mark-ups and related liquor taxes on 100% Ontario wine and over $230 million through other forms of tax to federal and provincial coffers. Their local economic impact is at least 400% times greater than their import competitors. Yet, unbelievably and inexplicably, the Ontario Ministry of Finance continues to subsidize our foreign competition while local wineries and growers struggle. The people that raise their families here, hire their neighbours, power their communities are actually forced to compete against government policy that subsidizes our foreign competition. It makes no sense - all while current provincial tax policy for local 100% Ontario VQA wines is killing our local family-farm operations.That’s why I am reaching out to you today. Now that you’ve signed our petition, can I ask you take 30 seconds to help us save 11,000 good-paying jobs? Visit www.supportontariocraftwineries.ca/about Find your MPP’s name and email. Copy and paste one of the sample letters we've prepared for you. Click send. And help us demand change in next week’s Ontario budget. We’ve only got a couple of days to make this happen. So can I ask that you please help us take action today? Thanks again for your support. Sincerely, Richard LinleyPresident, Ontario Craft Wineries