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unprofitable due to the large markups they take for themselves. "I just think it's totally over-regulated. There are rules on rules on rules. There's got to be a more simplistic way of handling things." Many critics hold up Alberta's privatized model as a way around the restrictions. Hicken notes that in his neighbouring province, the government collects a flat tax of roughly $3 per bottle of wine, whereas in B.C. government fees on an $8 bottle total $5.61. "It's a lot more than $3," he says of the B.C. markup. But not surprisingly, the story is more complicated. In Edmonton, Gurvinder Bhatia, a former lawyer who now owns a store called Vinomania, says retailers have long complained about a system that forces them to buy all their product through a private warehousing company, Connect Logistics Services Inc. "Alberta has the highest warehousing costs for Subscribe today to Canadian Lawyer Canadian Lawyer is the ultimate source for today's legal professional. Keep up to date and informed by subscribing today for only $65 a year! Along with 11 issues packed with insights, trends and analysis, you'll also receive access to Canadian Lawyer's exclusive digital edition and digital edition archives, available only to registered subscribers. And, you'll stay up to date on breaking news between issues with Canadian Legal Newswire, our free weekly enewsletter that is edited by our legal reporting team. Subscribe online at canadianlawyermag.com Paying it f orward • A supreme misstep • A lot of wine-ing September 2009 eptember 200 09 alcohol in North America," he argues. "The government likes to put out this propaganda and this false image of this industry because we have competition at the importation level [and] we have com- petition at the retail level, but we have this bottleneck at the warehousing level by this monopoly. They ultimately run what goes on in the industry now." But in the end, the wine industry con- tinues to draw people in, including lawyers like Toronto's Michael Kacaba. "It's a very interesting, multi-faceted industry," says Kacaba, who 13 years ago started Kacaba Vineyards in the Niagara hamlet of Vineland. "The thing about making wine is it's not finite. It's not like a retail operation where you buy product X, mark it up, and sell it for Y. It's creative. The other thing about it is the people involved in the indus- try are a really great group of people." Kacaba, in fact, was one of the early $7.00 ASIA BUSINESS IN Be it the Pacific Rim, Southeast Asia, or elsewhere in the world's largest continent, Canadian law firms are taking advantage of opportunities. RIDING THE PACIFIC WAVE P.30 INDIA: A MODERN DAY SILK ROUTE P.36 ❑ Send me 1 year of Canadian Lawyer for only $65.00 (Total with GST: $68.25) ❑ Send me 2 years of Canadian Lawyer for only $130.00 (Total with GST: $136.50) Name: ______________________________________________________________ Company: ____________________________________________________________ Address: ___________________________________________________________ City: ____________________________ Prov: ________ Postal Code: ____________ Tel: ( ) _______________________ Fax: ( ) ______________________ Email: _____________________________________________________________ ❑ Payment enclosed ❑ Charge my: ❑ Visa ❑ Mastercard ❑ American Express Card #: __________________________________ Expiry Date: ___ / ___ (mm/yy) Signature (required): _____________________________________ Date: ____________ 240 Edward St. Aurora, ON. L4G 3S9 Tel: (905) 727-0077 Fax: (905) 841-4357 Mail or fax this form to Canadian Lawyer Sub-ad_CL_Sep_09.indd 1 44 SEPTEMBER 2009 www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com DOING producers in Niagara to introduce the Syrah variety to the region, a move that required him to become an importer of grapes from California in 1998. It's such tasks that make being a lawyer an advan- tage. "It doesn't hurt to know how to fill out forms," he says. But most wineries don't have that in-house knowledge, which is creating lots of work for lawyers ready to tap into the need for advice on everything from trademark law to government restric- tions on advertising. In Petraroia's case, the emerging issue is winery succession. "A lot of people come into this business as their second career," he says. "They're at a point where, if they've built up a suc- cessful winery, it then becomes an issue of what happens now. Do we pass it on to the next generation, do we look for outside buyers, do we syndicate it somehow?" For that reason, he considers wine an area of growth for firms like his. "It really is in its infancy. It truly is because you have to measure the wine industry in decades and centuries rather than years," he says, citing the example of California's Napa Valley. "Canada is far behind Napa and some of the U.S. regions but it's catching up rapidly. While we're late starters, the growing practices, cultivation practices, and manufacturing practices tend to be first-rate. So they're creating sought-aſter wines right away, some of them." 8/14/09 9:11:54 AM C r e i g h t o n o n t h e b e n c h • J u r y t amp e r i n g • Pa r e n t a l a l i e n a t i o n s y n d r ome August 2009 $7.00 ASSEMBLY LINE Hundreds of l lawyers are Hun involved nvo Hundr LIN involve d in the com o f C naCa ada autom of an da's Canada's complex remodelling omotive industry. $7.00 S t . J o h n ' s c i t y r e v i ew • Wi l d , wi l d we b • C a r r i a g e b a t t l e s July 2009 July 2009 Louis Pasquinasqu tiion honou our or tion th be Ca nadaanada conviction that gives him the dubious honour of being the first lawyer in Canada guilty of gangsterism. Pasquin c on t at f being t being he him he dubiousdub io t of erism. GANGST see page 48 Save GANGSTA RAP AP Subscription Special iptii n pe i tion S % summer 35% uin is appealing the appealing app ppea g