Relaxing Regulations Could Help BC Labour Market, Says Fraser Institute

British Columbia is the third strongest performing labour market in Canada, behind Alberta and Saskatchewan, but could rise to the number one spot with looser provincial labour laws, according to a recent report by the Fraser Institute, a Vancouver-based free market think-tank.

Alberta came out on top of the study, which measured employment growth, productivity, unemployment, and other factors in each U.S. state and Canadian province. Saskatchewan scored the tenth place overall, while BC came in twelfth. No other Canadian province made the top-30.

“If we actually improved the characteristics of labour markets we would be among the top performing labour markets in North America,” explained the Fraser Institute’s director of fiscal studies, Niels Veldhuis, who credits the three western provinces’ booming economies for their current strong performance. “We would probably be No. 1. And that’s the message here for B.C., that we can be even better than what we have been in the last five years if we improve some of our characteristics.”

This could mean relaxing labour laws, reducing the percentage of employees working in the public sector, and reducing the minimum wage in relation to the average wage, Veldhuis said.

“All of these things have been shown by academic research to have negative impacts on labour markets,” he said, giving Alberta as an example of a free market leader. “They have lower unionization, they have less public-sector employment, they certainly have a much lower minimum wage relative to the average wage, and they have more balanced labour-relations laws.”

NDP Bashes Banks to Win Easy Votes

There’s been a lot of talk in the past few days about the ATM fees charged by Canada’s major banks; and as the federal parliament reconvenes, NDP leader Jack Layton is jumping on this issue as a new way to misinform the public and boost his party’s lethargic position in the polls.

Although this cause is a pretty safe bet for winning public support, it reeks of unwanted government intervention in the economy, not to mention the fact that it lacks all logical purpose.

If you ban ATM service fees, the banks will either be forced to stop providing after-hours automated service, or levy another fee (or two) somewhere else. And much as we like to bitch and bicker about ATM service charges, at least they can be avoided, which might not be the case for whatever would take their place.

Personally, I could probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve paid an ATM user fee, since I always plan ahead and make use of my own bank’s facilities. I also choose to keep the minimum balance on hand so as to avoid monthly account charges. In fact, aside from the cost of printing cheques, I can’t remember the last time CIBC got a dime of my money.

If you want the convenience of visiting any bank machine in town, that’s fine. Just remember that the banks can and will ask you to pay for it, and there’s no reason why politicians should be expecting anything else.

Canadian Economy is Over-Equalized, Says Report

Canada’s much-hyped culture of regional and institutional equality is a flawed concept, and is seriously undermining our country’s competitive clout in the global marketplace., according to a recent Conference Board report on the Canadian economy.

“We’ve called (it) the peanut butter approach,” explained Glen Hodgson, economist and co-author of the report’s 144-page first installment. “You kind of spread it smoothly across the land, even though you could get greater benefits if you found a way to concentrate in particular areas.”

As a country, Canada needs to invest its resources more efficiently, the report argues, especially in relation to the education and training of highly skilled workers.

The report also discusses regional distribution of resources, criticizing the current system of equalization payments and funding for cities, which it says penalizes growth.

Equality “might be part of the culture, but look at the practice,” Hodgson said.

“Here, as elsewhere, Canada will have to abandon a cherished myth of equal treatment for all its institutions,” social scientist Janice Gross Stein reminds us in the forward to the Conference Board report.

What these people seem to be saying is that, although the principle of “equality” looks good in theory, there are some situations where it simply doesn’t work, and shouldn’t get in the way of practicality, efficiency, and fairness. This type of objective reasoning can be applied economically on a great number of levels, and shouldn’t be dismissed too easily in any genuine capitalist society.

Research In Motion Gets Trademark-Paranoid

The future of Samsung’s BlackJack smartphone may be in jeopardy due to a new lawsuit from Research In Motion, claiming that the “BlackJack” brand name is too close to that of its own popular BlackBerry device.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the suit alleges that the new phone’s name “constitutes false designation of origin, unfair competition and trademark dilution.” RIM is using this to seek an injunction against the sale of BlackJack devices in the United States.

It is true that the RIM and Samsung devices are targeting nearly identical markets, with both the BlackJack and BlackBerry Pearl featuring wireless email capability and built-in QWERTY keyboards. Both are offered exclusively by Cingular Wireless in the United States.

Despite the striking similarities, however, it’s very difficult to see how any one company’s trademark can extend to cover the word “black.” Both of the devices are primarily black in color after all, and I can honestly say that I didn’t draw any connections to the BlackBerry brand name upon hearing about the BlackJack’s release.

All things considered, I can’t see how RIM really expects to win this lawsuit. It seems more like an attempt to establish their brand superiority complex, and assert a “we were here first” kind of message than to pose a serious legal threat to Samsung.

Don’t get me wrong; BlackBerry is perhaps one of the most iconic brands in the world, and represents a great family of products, but there comes a time to draw the line between brand protection and immature paranoia.

Originally published at TeleClick.ca.

Internet Advertising Revenues Set to Surpass Those of Radio

Revenues from the internet advertising industry will likely reach $16 billion this year, according to projections by eMarketer, and is set for more growth in the years to come.

As a whole, web advertising currently accounts of about 6% of all media spending, and is expected to reach 8% sometime in 2008, overtaking radio promotion.

“It’s one thing for Internet ad spending to surpass relatively minor media such as outdoor or Yellow Pages, but it’s quite another thing to blow past radio, one of the big four traditional media,” commented eMarketer analyst David Hallerman on the current trend.

Web-based advertising has continued growing despite a number of tough challenges, including clickfraud, and seems destined to become the next great nexus of media spending.