OTTAWA – Canada’s retailers are blaming their suppliers for the large gap that still exists between their prices and identical goods for sale south of the border, despite the nearly equal value of the two dollars.
Diane Brisebois of the Retail Council of Canada says the merchants she represents are being unfairly singled out for having higher prices than their American counterparts.
says because Canada’s population is so small in comparison, large multi-national vendors can enforce a special Canadian price for brand name products and it can be from 35 per cent to 40 per cent higher than in the U.S.
She says there are other reasons for the discrepancy, which some studies show average over 20 per cent.
Brisebois was testifying at a Senate committee looking into the issue.
She told the Senators they should look at the companies that supply Canadian retailers, but noted they had not as yet been called before the committee.
