Hopes that Ontarians would be able to buy their champagne for this New Year’s Eve in a supermarket have fizzled‎.

That’s because the liberalization of the province’s restrictive booze laws is taking longer than expected.

Premier Kathleen Wynne’s business guru, Ed Clark, had hoped to complete his recommendations on getting wine to Ontario grocery store shelves before summer’s end.

But sources say it now could be as late as November before the former TD Bank chief executive completes the next phase of opening up Ontario alcohol retailing, which means wine changes are unlikely until 2016.

In April, Clark released a 63-page blueprint for selling six-packs in 450 of Ontario’s 1,500 supermarkets.

The first grocery stores will begin peddling suds — and competing with the privately owned Beer Store chain — by this Christmas.

At the same time as his beer report, Clark issued a separate 38-page study that urged the sale of 60 per cent of the Hydro One transmission utility, which should net Wynne’s government $4 billion to fund transit.

An initial public offering of the first 15 per cent of the company will begin soon.

Even though he and his panel were able to navigate the Byzantine beer and electricity industries, the wine business is proving more difficult to uncork.

Insiders confide that Clark, who has been meeting with winemakers and importers, is finding he has his work cut out for him.

In an interview with the Star in April, he acknowledged the “trade rules themselves are quite complicated.”

That’s because Ontario’s privately owned Wine Rack and Wine Shop kiosks now operating inside many supermarkets have “grandfathered licences.”

Those are exempt from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

Clark said the 268 licences are “a huge asset to the Ontario wine business” because they sell both quality wine made here as well as foreign blended bulk plonk bottled in the province.

“But it’s just that they’re a huge asset to a very small number of companies in the wine business,” he said in April, referring to their owners, U.S.-based Constellation Brands, which has 164 Wine Racks, and Canada’s Andrew Peller Ltd., operator of 104 Wine Shops.

“I don’t want to just blow up those licences because having the ability to have licences in grocery stores that are dedicated to Canadian wine is a really valuable asset, so you’d never give that away for free.”

For its part, the Wine Council of Ontario has suggesting repurposing the kiosk licences to also benefit the province’s burgeoning craft wineries that bottle vintages from VQA appellations.

Clark, who last Monday was appointed to be Wynne’s unpaid “business adviser,” has said he is trying to devise a system that helps the province’s winemakers while also improving choice for consumers by getting foreign wines in supermarkets.

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Currently, the provincially owned Liquor Control Board of Ontario has a retail monopoly on quality wines from France, Italy, Spain, Australia, Argentina, and other countries.

That is even trickier than tackling the Beer Store chain because “there’s probably more sensitivities in the wine world than there is in the beer world.”

“We were dealing with three of the world’s largest international beer companies so obviously they weren’t going to go back and protest any deal (with trade challenges),” Clark said of the offshore corporate parents of Labatt, Molson, and Sleeman.

“When you’re dealing with a lot of small French producers or California producers who are quite prepared to use the trade weapons so you have to be very careful.”

When he completes his wine report, Clark will also unveil a template for modernizing the LCBO, which will continue to be the only retail outlet for spirits in the province.

He is expected to recommend expanded online sales, new specialty boutiques, and other measures to improve service while keeping the monopoly in public hands.

Against that backdrop, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents 7,000 LCBO workers, began airing radio ads on Friday attacking the Liberals for allowing supermarket beer and wine sales.

The union warned increasing consumer access to booze will mean more impaired drivers and underage drinkers.

“Alcohol is not just another consumer product,” said OPSEU president Warren (Smokey) Thomas in a statement.

“It is a controlled substance, and for good reason. Many of us enjoy alcohol in moderation, but the facts are that alcohol consumption is linked to a wide range of harms from injuries and trauma to disease and disability,” said Thomas.

“We hope these ads will start a conversation. If the government’s plan goes through, this will be the largest expansion of liquor retailing in Ontario history.

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