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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: High Duties => Increased Competitiveness?
Message-ID: <1714@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 10-Oct-85 18:13:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: dciem.1714
Posted: Thu Oct 10 18:13:55 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 10-Oct-85 20:17:07 EDT
References: <2591@watcgl.UUCP> <36@ubc-cs.UUCP> <39@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: mmt@dciem.UUCP (PUT YOUR NAME HERE)
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 45
Summary: 


>I am not convinced that stricter combines laws would necessarily result
>in a more competitive market place. What is needed instead is the removal
>of legislation that encourages monopolistic practices. Consider what would 
>happen if the Post Office didn't have a legislated monopoly. We would
>certainly have cheaper rates for some services while others would more
>closely reflect their true cost. For example it has to more expensive to
>move a letter from Vancouver to Inuvik then to Victoria. If the government
>then decides that the Inuvik mail service should be subsidized then it
>should be done up front so that we know the exact costs instead of having it
>hidden in some huge bureaucratic nightmare (currently known as Canada Post).

If you carry this through to its logical conclusion, you must include
the problem of unnatural geographic monopoly, as well.  Canada is a most
unnatural country, that has been held together only by communication
subsidies to long-distance communication, and by a distaste for being
swallowed by the USA.  The former, I think, has been more vital.
In my ideal Canada, Canadian citizens would travel free on any carrier
(e.g. mostly Newfoundland businesses).  If we, as Canadians, want Newfoundland
to belong to Canada, we should give them the same opportunities that
Central Canadians enjoy.  The same applies to the Far North.  I think
that the charges to individuals and businesses should increase with distance
within Canada, but only slightly, and the real cost excess should be
paid by the taxpayer in the interests of Canadian unity (much like the
infamous Crow's Nest Pass rates, which did not work as fairly as my
suggestion).  Non-Canadian businesses and non-resident individuals
would pay normal costs for long-distance travel in Canada, to prevent
them from taking advantage of the subsidy for the benefit of the USA.
This logic applies equally to the Post Office, since all mail starting
or stopping in Canada is for the benefit of Canada.

Of course, if you want to make everything natural, Canada (and the USA)
should break up into smallish autonomous regions which associate according
to similarity of interests and ease of internal communication.  But I
can't accept that you want Canada to continue, and at the same time want
to have the users pay the true and full costs of communication over
long distances.  Those positions are incompatible.  I know you (Donald Acton)
didn't take that position, and you did accept the possible value of
subsidy for post to Inuvik, but a lot of people do seem to take the
incompatible positions both at the same time.
-- 

Martin Taylor
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