5 Small things to keep in mind for June 30th, 2022
1) Monopolies Killed My Hometown, Episode 6
Today's episode is slightly different than usual. In today's episode I provide updates on some amendments to the Competition Act introduced in this year's Federal Budget, provide a short update on the Rogers/Shaw merger, and introduce the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project (CAMP) which I'm a founding member of. Finally I circle to an article I wrote about the type of competition our Competition Laws should foster and protect - tl dr; it's not competition like sports, it's the competition that makes an ecosystem stronger and keeps it in balance.
2) Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project (CAMP)
The Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project is a new organization and think tank that Keldon Bester, Robin Shaban and I are the co-founders of.
The goal of CAMP is to help move the policy forward to benefit more individual Canadians.
We are just getting started and we have an upcoming launch event scheduled for July. Stay-tuned for more info on that event.
3) The Canadian Chamber of Commerce Interim Report
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce released an interim report on The Future of Competition Policy. This report has a lot of questions about the proposed changes to the Competition Act. They are going to release a final report at a later date.
This baffles me. Looking at the Fellow and the Board of Advisors, I would bet HUGE dollars their report will say everything is fine, or we need to tweak just a few things. It makes me wonder who is the I’m a member of two local Chambers of Commerce, and I’ve always thought they were there to fight for me as a small business. Not to mention that more small businesses in the country is actually beneficial to the Canadian Chamber since it creates more members, more dues, more influence and more benefits premiums.
In fact, in Cumberland County, NS, there were at least 3 different Chambers of Commerce and another Board of Trade. Today, there is only one left and it's amalgamated to cover the same area the 3 previous Chambers covered.
Small businesses need a better enforced Competition Act to help us compete on a fair playing field. Who is the Chamber of Commerce actually representing and lobbying for? (Looking at their Board of Directors gives a good suggestion on the answer to this question.)
4) What one citizen can accomplish, eventually, when decisions are made locally
Some background to better understand this song – a prominent member of HaliTwitter, with a raccoon as a profile pic, has been pushing for something to be done on his street in Halifax. There’s been over 20 car crashes since 2018. Read the article from the Coast for even more info.
The guy on the accordion sings accordion cover songs about people and events. He’s another example of how much more interesting life is when we let people be who they are, and we let people run their own communities and businesses.
Halifax’s Hero, @Seebo429 pic.twitter.com/HK84qLpZGg twitter.com/TwitCoast/stat…
In a neighbourhood plagued by car crashes, an unlikely hero emerged:
thecoast.ca/halifax/the-ra… May 21st 2022
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5) Something to watch
The American Economic Liberties Project has started a series called “Thinking Big” where they will talk with authors of books. This first episode was with Peter Goodman, author of ‘Davos Man: How Billionaires Devoured the World.”
Member discussion