FSTDT Forums
Community => Politics and Government => Topic started by: Askold on July 24, 2017, 01:14:25 pm
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http://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/provincial-trade-barriers-1.4175314
This was complete news to me but if a Canadian, living in Canada buy something from one place, in Canada, and then moves with his purchase to another place, in Canada, he may in fact violate laws?
As in, you buy a case of beer in one province then cross the border to another province and you will be punished?
For an EU member who is getting used to free trade between several countries this system seems kinda ancient and honestly ...silly.
Any Canadian who wants to do business in any province must still register separately in that province, hire a representative, pay a fee and submit paperwork. Regulations on, for example, trucking, are not harmonized.
Protectionist unions see to it that workers from one province cannot cross over and work in another. An Ontario doctor's prescription will almost certainly be rejected in a Quebec pharmacy.
And of course government-overseen cartels called marketing boards set prices we pay for dairy, poultry and maple syrup.
Municipalities tell you what taxis you can or cannot summon to your home.
This, we are told, is all for our own good. And police – gun-carrying agents of the state charged with protecting us – are ultimately used as enforcers. See the Comeau case.
Canada? I thought you guys were better than this.
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It's because sales taxes are a major source of revenue for the provinces, so they don't want you buying stuff in one province (paying sales tax there) and bringing it into another.
Never mind that this is completely unconstitutional:
All Articles of the Growth, Produce, or Manufacture of any one of the Provinces shall, from and after the Union, be admitted free into each of the other Provinces.
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This is weird to me as an American because I know its a common thing to go from the state I live to the one down south to by things like TV sets or Cars down there because we have a pretty big sales tax and Oregon has no sales tax because they cover all their expenses with income taxes and the like.