It took a Vancouver Canucks playoff hockey game, of all things, to begin to uncork the persistent dispute between British Columbia and Alberta over cross-border wine sales, which ultimately led to an agreement Tuesday.

The origins of the deal go back to May 11, when Alberta Premier Danielle Smith invited B.C. Premier David Eby to watch game two of the Canucks-Oilers playoff series in a private box at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

The hope was, during a break in the action, the two premiers might start to find some common ground over what was, at that point, a four-month ban by Alberta on B.C. wineries that had been selling cases of wine directly to Alberta consumers and bypassing Alberta provincial taxes.

“We indicated to Alberta that if we had a chance, we wanted to talk about that,” Eby said in an interview Tuesday.

“And so it was between the second and third period we sat down.”

The move marked a thaw in relations between the two provinces on the issue.

For months, B.C. Solicitor General Mike Farnworth and Service........

© BIV