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With the Ontario budget scheduled to be release on April 23rd there are expected to be radical change to the way alcohol is sold in Ontario. Unfortunately the changes that are speculated to be in the pipeline may not be enough.
There is going to be no immediate change to the way that wine is sold as there are multiple international agreements that need to be consulted and considered in order for the province to make changes while still maintaining their protectionist policies. The Taxi system in many large cities in North America is broken. Unfortunately Ottawa is among these. Through the historical over-reliance on regulation as means to create a safe, quality, and consistent experience, Ottawa has managed to create the very climate they set out to avoid.
Only with the recent entrance of Uber’s taxi service into the Ottawa market has any meaningful debate about the quality, price, and structure of Ottawa’s sub-par taxi system been highlighted. Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.
This is the opening of the Equality Rights, Section 15, of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This section codifies the idea that every single person in Canada has the same rights, and is subject to the same laws. Every one who engages in a policy of selling products in any area of Canada at prices lower than those exacted by him elsewhere in Canada is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.
This is Section 50, paragraph 1(b), of the Canadian Competition Act (1985) which outlines what constitutes discriminatory pricing.
The pricing practices of all of the major wireless providers in Canada perpetuate a highly uncompetitive marketplace practices which fall squarely under the definition of discriminatory pricing as defined about in the Competition Act. Vancouver, with its lack of highways, is one of only a few cities which rely exclusively on surface streets. This fundamental difference makes analysing the effectiveness of some of their transportation infrastructure choices very interesting.
The heavy reliance on a grid roads to move traffic around makes the effectiveness of intersections extremely important. There are three types of intersections used in Vancouver which warrant discussion: four-way signal-controlled intersections, two-way signal-controlled intersections, and pedestrian crossings.