VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - It still costs a lot less to buy books, cars and a lot of other items in the States, and Canada's Finance Minister says he is irritated.
Jim Flaherty wants a Senate committee to look at why this is the case even though our loonie has been strong for five years.
Bruce Cran with the
Consumers' Association of Canada says taxes and tariffs on imports are part of the problem.
"The [cross-border shopping] industry is being supported through tariffs and taxes that the [Canadian Department] of Finance is charging at the moment," he says. "I think that is something that they could do themselves, go through there and cut out some of these outdated tariffs."
Cran also says even if the prices are finally brought into line it will still be quite some time before people will give up going to the states.
"[It's] customer service and convenience," he says. "For some reason I don't think we get it in Canada... I get a lot of calls like that. People still have been exposed to a much more convenient service structure."