The federal government is attempting to close the retail price gap between the US and Canada. It's a noble goal, one that I can get behind in theory, since I don't like the way companies will add an arbitrary amount of money onto Canadian products. Electronics in particular are bad for this, with Sony's Playstation 4 being $50 more in Canada seemingly only because they found a way to charge extra money. The problem with any such plan is that it's basically impossible to implement.
There are loopholes here, giant loopholes which it is impossible to really fill. The first loophole is relatively simple, Canadian products would be slightly different than American products, enough to make it very difficult to actually compare the two. Even without incentive to do so, companies will already vary what each country gets based on things like buying patterns. With some big ticket items like cars, Canadian and US versions are different because of different regulations in each country, mandating some alterations just because, for example, Canadian bumper standards are more strict. There's enough potential for variation that increased costs, on some level, could be justified and rolled into the price. Sony's blatant PS4 price gouging can be justified if they throw in a cheap bonus, in essence.
Then you've got the general supply chain justifications. If I were to buy an apple in a store in Yorkton, it would cost significantly cheaper than an apple purchased in Yellowknife. That's an extreme example, given that Yellowknife is remote, but Canada is a place that has some people but a great deal of land. This means that shipping costs are going to be high here, that's an inevitability, but it also means that shipping costs can justify price variation within Canada, let alone in comparison to products south of the border. Gas varies from town to town, after all, as does the price of basically anything you can name. Smaller places have to price higher just because of economies of scale.
Then we have the standard problem of how on earth you're going to regulate this. There are naturally going to be some obvious examples, I said one in the opening paragraph in fact, but there will also be a lot of ways that companies will fight the law, and people will have to pore over the minutiae of shipping and suppliers in order to see if there's really a justified reason for the extra cost. All of these people will have to be paid, all of their pay will come from taxes since this is a federal agency. So we're going to be paying for the difference anyway.
The trick is with Canadian citizens frankly, vote with your wallet. If companies can charge more for things, so don't let them. This is easier with some things than other, but essentials like food are going to be varied from place to place anyway. Non-essentials like electronics or entertainment products are tempting, but if you don't think the price is right, the money can stay in your wallet. That way, it becomes increasingly difficult for companies to justify adding a Canada tax to items just because they can. I'm not someone who thinks that the free market can solve all things, but consumer goods are driven by what people are willing to actually pay for things. Don't pay for things if you think they're more expensive than they're worth.
