09/03/2023
Arif Virani came to see me at the store on August 11th. He pledged to raise some of these issues at the Cabinet Retreat August 23-25th and get back to me. No word yet. Below is the letter I sent him after his visit to the store. (I had to edit out some links sourcing some of my facts because of Meta rules).
To: Virani, Arif - M.P.
Sent: Monday, August 14, 2023 at 01:03:32 p.m. EDT
Subject: Re: Information of Other Small Independent Bookstores
Hi Arif and Hamid,
Thanks for coming by on Friday. I appreciate it. It would be good if you called ahead next time though as my wife wasn't thrilled to be sitting in the car for half an hour. Please understand that I am still pretty unhappy that it took sticking a letter in my window to hear back from your office after multiple emails and phone calls were ignored.
I think there has been some important context missing from our discussions and so there are a few things I would like you to bear in mind when considering these issues:
i) Share of total retail that is now online 14.1%
ii) Share of ecommerce for Amazon.ca 41.5% 2023). It is worth noting that much of the remainder is taken up by other US chains like Walmart and Amazon.com.
iii) These companies are very good at avoiding paying taxes using complex structures of licence and management fees payable outside of Canada to dramatically reduce their tax exposure. As their share of retail revenue continues to grow there are profound implications for federal revenue streams.
As for the email from Canada Post you sent me if you consider that a "response" I am frankly speechless. That was halfway between a form letter and a flyer and in no way meaningfully acknowledged the issues I have raised or suggested there is any intention of doing anything about them. You will note I responded (did you actually read that response?) and, of course, they had nothing further to say. There really is no way to defend the status quo so instead you get bromides and "thanks for bringing this to our attention".
A response would be something like: i) You are right! Here is what we are doing about it; or ii) You are wrong! Here is why. Instead I got "Thank you for bringing this to our attention" as if years of reaching out somehow hadn't already accomplished that.
I guess what I am waiting for is someone at Canada Post to be honest enough to say: "Yes we totally recognize that the system works much better for foreign sellers and large corporations than it does for anyone else but you know what? We are totally ok with that. It is not part of our mandate to care about Canadian small businesses or regional development or anything frankly beyond bringing in the annual profit each year that determines our executive bonuses and this means we have to stick someone with the costs of delivering all of these foreign packages and, well, I'm afraid that's going to be you. Nothing is going to change for you unless the Canadian government changes our mandate and deliverables."
As for taxation of e-commerce and book pricing legislation I have yet to see anything from anyone other than that one odd phone call from someone in the Ministry of Finance in 2021 proudly informing me that they were now taxing online orders to American companies which were fulfilled in Canada. I'm dying to know by the way exactly how long those orders weren't taxed and whether any effort was made to get back the money that ought to have been paid and indeed would have been paid if these purchases were from Canadian companies. I may have to file an Access to Information request though as no one from the ministry ever got back to me again. Certainly nothing has changed in terms of Canadian websites not collecting GST on orders to sellers outside of Canada.
I just went to order a paperback of "The Handmaid's Tale" from a US seller on Amazon.ca and this is what the checkout screen showed:
Order Summary
Items: $13.76
Shipping & Handling: $0.00
Total before tax: $13.76
Estimated GST/HST: $0.00
Estimated PST/RST/QST: $0.00
So I can get a copy of this book from the US with free shipping and no tax for less than it would cost my business to mail the same book from here to Winnipeg. Canada Post will, of course, be delivering it.
In contrast here is part of an invoice for an order I got on Abebooks (a Canadian website) as you can see Abe collects the Minnesota sales tax from the customer and will be remitting that directly.
Total:
US$ 16.17
Item description Quantity Item price excluding Sales Tax Sales Tax amount Item subtotal including Sales Tax
Barrelhouse Kings A Memoir
A Good Read ships from Toronto and Niagara Falls, NY - customers outside of North America please allow two to three...
1 US$ 7.99 US$ 0.63 US$ 8.62
Shipping
US$ 7.00 US$ 0.55 US$ 7.55
US$ 14.99
US$ 1.18
US$ 16.17
$
Consider that for a moment. The state of Minnesota has been more effective at protecting its interests online than the Canadian government.
The heritage ministry has never responded on the issue of book pricing legislation.
Kieran has pulled together some of the other information you requested and I will send that separately but, again, nothing is stopping you guys from reaching out on your own to CIBA, the Retail Council of Canada or the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses or to any other small Canadian businesses you see listing online. Not to be snarky but I've been at this for years and its a bit frustrating to have to go over this stuff with you guys again and again only to have nothing happen. I already have a day job.
https://www.retailcouncil.org/contact/
https://www.cfib-fcei.ca/en/
https://www.cibabooks.ca/contact-us
I'm pretty confident that if you reach out to these organizations and ask them about Canada Post you will get an earful.
Most of the online sellers I personally know have given up selling in Canada and only sell to the US now but if you like I can give you some of their contact info as well.
Honestly though if I hear one more word about supporting small businesses in accessing the digital marketplace through grants for webpage design, etc. I may just shoot myself. Amazon is selling books for $22.59 that cost me $22.38 and - thanks in large part to Canada Post - is able to offer unlimited free delivery for $99/year while I would need to charge $20/package just to make sure I wasn't losing money on orders outside of Toronto and Montreal. If you think a jazzier website is going to help with that then I frankly don't know what to tell you.
The issues I face as a bookseller are shared by people selling any manner of products so even if you don't give a hoot about the book industry recognize that we are the canary in the coal mine here and all sorts of other retail stores won't be far behind us. Think of Pollocks Hardware next door to me and the fact that it was cheaper (and tax free!) to get humidifier filters from China than from them.
I am very much looking forward to a real response after the Cabinet retreat. Not to be ungrateful but I'm leaving the letter in the window for now (but will add a note mentioning your visit and your commitment to get back to me after the cabinet retreat later in August) as I am still awaiting a real response. It is has also been gratifying to see the response of my customers who were largely unaware of these issues. If nothing is going to change though I need you to at least justify it - give me a rationale. What am I missing? How is the status quo actually good for Canada? Because I can't see the logic in any of this. Thanks, Gary
A Good Read
341 Roncesvalles Ave
Toronto, ON
416 538 2665
agoodread.ca
Canadian Independent Booksellers Association - Contact Us
