President of the Craft Distillers Guild of British Columbia, Tyler Dyck is raising the alarm over so-called maple leaf washing within BC liquor stores.

According to Dyck, maple leaf washing is where a made in Canada sticker is placed on a product that is bottled here, but not produced here.

“Bottled in Canada is just putting in the liquid that is shipped at a high percentage from another country, so that it's cheaper for that company to make money in Canada,” said Dyck.

“Canadians are trying to do the right thing and trying to power Canada. They go home, pick up their bottle and spin it around and the only thing Canadian about it is the glass it's put in. It's just wrong and misleading."

Dyck believes that when the push to buy local started earlier this year, many companies in different industries capitalized on the national pride to further themselves.

Products are either labelled Product of Canada or Made in Canada–according to the competition Bureau Canada the difference between the two involves where processing was done and the ingredients origin.

Product of Canada claims are subject to a 98 per cent threshold of Canadian content, while Made in Canada claims are subject to a 51 per cent threshold of Canadian content, but should be accompanied by a qualifying statement indicating that the product contains imported content.

In both cases, the last major processing of the product must have happened in Canada.

“Does it power Canadians? Absolutely not. A few jobs at the bottling house, but most of that is mechanized,” said Dyck.

The Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General told Castanet legal requirements for the country of origin on alcohol bottles are federal jurisdiction through the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

CIFA didn’t immediately respond to Castanet’s request for comment.

Regardless of the jurisdiction, Dyck said mislabelling certain liquors could lead to consumers being duped.

“This is a time where authentic Canadian companies should be benefiting from this. Unfortunately, in the case of alcohol, most, if not all of that money is still leaving the country,” said Dyck.

Dyck mentioned Bacardi Rum and Southern Comfort being two alcohols that are being mislabelled. Neither Bacardi nor Southern Comfort responded to Castanet’s request for comment