The Ontario government has uncorked a new $75-million wine strategy in advance of an expected Niagara Falls byelection.

Premier Kathleen Wynne said a cabinet wine secretariat will be created to boost the province’s industry.

Wynne will also loosen Ontario’s rigid liquor laws to allow the sale of Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) wines, which are made from Ontario-grown grapes, at farmers markets “in a socially responsible way.”

Most significantly, the Liberals will establish a wine fund to help wineries upgrade equipment and technology and better market local products here in LCBO stores and abroad.

It’s part of a five-year, $75 million wine and grape strategy announced as the Liberals gird for a byelection that must be held by March in Niagara Falls, which had been held by retired Grit Kim Craitor.

“I’m committed to supporting this innovative industry and I encourage consumers to choose Ontario wines first as they share them with family and friends this holiday season and throughout the year,” Wynne said Monday.

“They’re local, they’re good for our economy, and they support good jobs,” she told winemakers at the Niagara College Wine Visitor and Education Centre in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

“In the last 30 years, this industry has just burgeoned. Your sector is an Ontario success story. We can set our heights higher and take this industry to the next level.”

Hillary Dawson, president of the Wine Council of Ontario, hailed the “fantastic news” for a sector that pumped about $3.3 billion into the province’s economy in 2011.

“The best part about our industry is we’re not moving. We’re invested in the land and we’re invested in our properties. You can’t run a VQA winery in Mexico,” she said.

Dawson added the new secretariat — to be led by Wynne, who also serves as agriculture minister, and Environment Minister Jim Bradley, the St. Catharines MPP — would help the industry find ways to reduce red tape.

“We have a whole slew of ministries that we deal with — just by the nature of our business — and the secretariat will quarterback on some of the initiatives that we’re still moving forward on,” she said.

“We still have ongoing work on liquor-law reform and what these programs are going to look like rolling forward.”

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