This Blog is all about the retail price differences that Canadians pay to enjoy our “Free Health Care” and other social benefits. I’m writing this after 10 years of keeping a second home in Phoenix and constantly telling my U.S. friends that nothing is “free”.
I hope you enjoy this Blog and, that my U.S. readers can really appreciate the extra bucks it takes to live in Canada and enjoy Free Health Care and that my Canadian readers will take the time to “Shuffle off to Buffalo” or shop on-line to keep some hard earned Canadian Dollars in their pockets. Comments, suggestions and your input is always welcome. Keith
This article alludes to why our food prices are too high, “… its system of supply-management of eggs, milk and other farm products…” I find close to 0 Canadians understand this matter.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/04/11/canada-us-lumber-dispute_n_1418932.html?ref=canada
See latest on Milk
I have two more stories for you to research 🙂
1) I found dental care in Ontario is 2-3X the cost in the US. I can get my teeth cleaned in the US for about $60. I am usually out about $180-$200 here. Thank goodness I have supplemental insurance. I discovered that most Ontario dentists follow the fee schedule set out by the Ontario Dental Association’s Suggested Fee Guide. In the US, this would be called COLLUSION and would be ILLEGAL! Of course pricing is high. All the dentist get together, set very high prices and as long as nobody flinches, they can screw everyone real easy.
http://www.oda.on.ca/history-mission-a-vision.html
2) I went to a running specialty store looking for a Garmin Foot Pod today. I remember the Garmin MSRP was about $70, so I was expecting a price of about $70+18% import duty. I was shocked to see the MSRP from the distributor to the retailer was $130! MSRP from Garmin.com is indeed $69.99 and I can even get it from Amazon.CA for $45.88. WTF is up with $130? This seems to be in alignment with some Canadian distributors claiming they are screwed by their distributors and they have to pass the screwing on.
I have been planning to do a Dental piece as soon as I do a bit more research. There is a new Dental Clinic opened up down the road from me in Phoenix and they sent a flyer around with a $39.95 Cleaning Special. With “overpriced” supplementary insurance covering 80% in Ontario this has become yet another racket.
After thinking about the Dental “Cartel” sponsored by government sponsored collusion, it occured ti me, I think the Beer Store is also government permitted collusion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Store
If you look at who owns it and how it works, of course beer is expensive. The manufacturers managed to allow the government to allow them to collaborate at the retail outlet. Its very easy to keep prices artificially high.
It seems to me the residents of Ontario are generally too uninformed or apathetic to pressure their elected representatives to outlaw all these legal cartels in Ontario/Canada.
Dude: I accidently found this today on bing.com. I never saw it before. http://www.bing.com/shopping/cross_border?&form=SHOPLK&setmkt=en-ca&setlang=match
Interesting discovery I made living in Canada. In the US, all people that sell oil changes insisted you MUST change your oil every 3,000 miles. Even the dealer. Even the dealer that sells the car whose owner manual says to change it every 5,000 miles.
Every car I have owned, the owner manual says to change the oil every 5,000 miles. In Canada, the oil change companies have used, recommended I change my oil at 5,000 miles and the reminder sticker they put on my car is for 5,000 miles.
One of the few times I didn’t feel like I got the shaft in Canada! I will take it! 🙂
Hey Keith! I have nominated your informative and funny blog for the Liebster Award! You can see what you have to do here: http://myyearofsweat.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/and-id-like-to-thank-the-academy/. You don’t have to do anything with it if you don’t want to 🙂 (it seems to be a little chain-letter’ish) but hey, it’s kind of fun to be nominated! Have a great day!
Thanks Nancy, sounds like fun I’ll do the same to others.