Jen Drake, CFI, Director of Resource Protection, West 49 Inc. On –                                    Security Licensing Loss prevention will need to be aware of our Security Licensing requirements, which are currently issued at a Provincial level. This legislation is not just for security guards, it is applicable to retail investigators as well. Until we see a change in how licenses are issued, the Provincial level licensing means that if you are an LP Manager conducting interviews within multiple Provinces, you are required to hold a security license for each Province.

With all the press and pressure about retail prices being 20% higher in Canada, their government is looking to decrease tariffs and "encourage good behavior through the tax system" on the Canadian retailers and manufacturers themselves.  Their Finance Minister even said they're prepared to use "informal persuasive powers" and put pressure on the retailers and manufacturers directly to lower prices.  But their Director in the Economic and Fiscal Policy Branch said "in general the tariff rates are actually quite low,"  and "Ninety percent of goods enter the country duty free. In 2010, $360 billion of $400 billion in total imports came into the country duty free."  The issue of pricing for a domestic market is complex and can involve manufacturers "exercising market power" by discriminating up or down in pricing in rich markets, or to maintain a market share," officials added.  They're having hearings on the matter which are expected to last for weeks and this problem is upsetting the Canadian consumer.  The U.S. retailers better be careful with their pricing models or they're going to face both political – press – and public criticism.  (Source canadianbusiness.com)

Lowe's stops its Canadian military 10% discount rolled out in 2008 and says it was only intended for U.S. military which didn't go over well with the Canadian armed forces.  The company said the program was never intended for Canada and just recently realized its error.  "I'm not able to get into the specifics of our [Lowe's] systems and processes, but it [the discount] was a combination of misunderstanding and miscommunication that unfortunately went undetected until now," Joanne Elson, corporate communications manager with Lowe's Canada, said Wednesday.  (Source torontosun.com)

U.S. consumer/now Toronto resident says "the real kicker for me is the lack of e-commerce" in Canada. "When I lived in Washington, DC, I could make up for the lost time by handling most of my errands online.  Why can't I do that here? Why haven't high-end Canadian retailers, such as Holt Rentfrew, The Room at the Bay, and David's Shoes followed the U.S.'s Saks, Neimans, Barneys, and Bergdorfs into cyberspace? Why haven't mid-range retailers such as TNT and Nyla joined J. Crew and Intermix on the web?  I constantly agonize not only about the inefficiency, slowness and waste of productive time, but about the mystery of it all. Why aren't Canadian retailers trying to maximize their revenues? Why are they satisfied with just good enough? Don't they want to be better, faster, and richer?  When I asked Roger Martin, the Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, why Canada is so limited on e-commerce, he matter of factly replied, "There is a bit of a chicken and egg problem. Canadian businesses that are exposed to vigorous competition are highly innovative and make competition even more intense. However, Canadian businesses that aren't exposed to intense competition can be pretty darn complacent.  Don Tapscott, a Canadian who is arguably the world's leading thinker in the digital age, says with frustration, "American companies like J. Crew know how backward Canada is, and they can get away with charging huge premiums to Canadian customers. If you don't have a U.S. relative and mailing address, you're going to pay a third more for many things."  The Canadian Push is going to change this channel soon enough.  (Source huffingtonpost.ca)