I'd say that the first thing is competition. There's a lot less competition here, which means that companies can charge more. They have this great thing in the U.S. called the “one box”. Basically, you're given one box. If you're a small business in the United States, you can put anything you want in it, no matter what weight it is. If it fits in the box, it's a set price.
As a small business that may not have any more employees than just him or her, having that type of ease of use on the performance side is very, very important.
To put myself through law school, I sold T-shirts online, and I had to go to the post office on Friel at the corner of Rideau Street every day after class. I would sit there and try to figure out, well, what's the best rate for these two shirts? Do I send them separately or do I bundle them together? I'm a pretty savvy guy and I had trouble figuring it out. What does that mean for all other small businesses that are trying to ship?
I think Canada Post has done a good job of improving on that, and I've worked very closely with Mr. Chopra, CEO at Canada Post, to help that, but it's still not great. It's still pretty complicated, as a Canadian small business, to ship things. For example, the fact that we have HST in certain provinces and not in other provinces is confusing. The fact that if I'm selling children's clothing so I don't have to pay certain taxes is additionally confusing. I don't think it's just the shipping or the [Inaudible--Editor] on its own, but I think they do have an easier time in the U.S. registering a business, launching a business, and scaling a business than we do have here in Canada.