5 Small Things to Keep in Mind for August 11, 2022

1) CAMP Launch Event - TODAY!

It's here. It's here. Today's the day. Join us at 12pm EST to hear our vision for CAMP, and hear Barry Lynn and Stacy Mitchell share some of their experiences.

If you haven't registered, do it now!

2) E9: The Efficiencies Exception: Let's Not Keep It.

In today's episode I review a memo written by the Competition Policy Council at the C.D. Howe Institute called, "The Efficiencies Exception, Let's Keep it." The efficiencies exception, or efficiencies defense, is an odd section of our Competition Act which allows the Bureau and Tribunal to approve mergers with anti-competitive effects that are predicted to have more efficiencies than costs. The theory is this will make firms more competitive internationally, even though it may cost individual Canadians more personally, or even cause people to lose their jobs.

I argue this does not line up with the values we have as Canadians, and needs to be removed from our Competition Act when we complete the review of the act.

3) More on corporate roll-ups of vet, dental, and other health care clinics

Chris Hannay had another excellent article in the Globe about the roll-ups of vet, dental and other health care clinics. One interesting point he makes is the gap in regulations and jurisdictions between the Provincial and Federal governments. Provinces regulate and issue the licenses to these professionals, but the Federal government is responsible for competition. It creates this space that large corporate owners can exploit.

4) Loblaws buys Lifemark

I don't know how I missed this story. Loblaw bought the Physiotherapy clinic chain Lifemark this year. The article from the Financial Post says they want to turn Shoppers' Drug Mart into a health care provider.

Currently in Amherst, we have two Physio chains, Lifemark and PT Health, but no independent physiotherapists. We're down to ever fewer options. Now Lifemark is owned by Loblaw, and PT Health which was previously owned by Lifemark is now also owned by Loblaw. What a world! I'm sure this will work out well for us.

True story - I went to PT Health for physio and the new patient form I filled out had the Lifemark letterhead on it.

5) Sometimes I just want to own things again...

Another strong article from the Globe and Mail on subscription fatigue.

Sometimes I want to own things again, like CDs, records or music, but then Spotify is so convenient. I never want to own DVDs or movies again - I'll stream those all-day. The worst of all worlds is the 'own this movie with Bell' ads I see on my TV. You get to buy the movie and watch it as many times you want, as long as you are a Bell customer.

It's software that I want to own again. I want to buy Quickbooks, and not be forced to rent it for a ridiculous monthly amount. It's odd, I don't mind renting Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook and everything in Office 365. I HATE not being able to buy Adobe Illustrator or any of the Adobe products. I don't even use them, I just hate that I can't go buy them if I wanted to.

What about you? Are there any subscriptions that irrationally bother you?

Have a great week everyone. Hope to see you later today at our CAMP launch event.

Andrew