CANADA: BORDERS
“Overall, our strategic goal is to re-invigorate the association, driving the agenda forward with government, the media and public to bring greater value to members and increase member engagement and recruitment.”
Barbara Barrett, FDFA
sales last year? I am pleased. Sales have marginally increased at land border stores in 2018 compared to the previous year, highlighting the resilience of the duty free sector. However, tourism spending by international visitors continues to decline in Canada and this is affecting sales in our industry. The government needs to implement coherent and comprehensive policies such as the visitor rebate programme to support the tourism industry in Canada.
The FDFA announced a new strategic direction last year to strengthen its advocacy voice in Ottawa and across the country. Practically, what moves have been made to create a more favourable regulatory environment for your members? Overall, our strategic goal is to re-invigorate the association, driving the agenda forward with government, the media and public to bring greater value to members and increase member engagement
and recruitment. We plan to do this practically through establishing relationships with key government department officials
and
stakeholders; grassroot mobilisation of store operators/members; and through ongoing outreach with key FDFA partners to identify areas of mutual interest and coordinate common responses where possible. For the first time in many years,
we will be holding a Hill Day for members to gather in Ottawa to meet with relevant government officials and bring the voice of FDFA to the capital.
A fresh convention format with flexible attendance times for suppliers, category-specific operator bookings and a focused meetings itinerary was also unveiled last year. How did the first one go? With over 250 attendees, members and suppliers alike were able to network through cocktail and lounge events and private meetings. Store operators were able to learn about new trends, and sample products from suppliers. The new format of the Convention fostered a positive business development environment and allowed for more productive supplier/store operator business discussions. Throughout
the four-day
Convention, our members had a chance to meet with many different
industry stakeholders, from
suppliers, to provincial government representatives. We are extremely pleased with this new format and will continue to build and improve even more on that success.
In the past, the FDFA has spoken about the ‘Roadtrip’ programme to incentivise US travellers to spend on the borders via a 5% GST rebate on goods verified as exported from Canada (replacing the old visitor rebate programme). What is the status of this and what are you doing to develop it? The Roadtrip refers to part of the visitor rebate programme that was administered in the duty free stores – that is, visitors to Canada could take their receipts into a duty free store and receive their rebate immediately. This is very much a focus for the association as we advocate for the return of the visitor rebate programme.
What is your view on the proposed rise in Canada’s de minimis threshold (C$20-C$150) for cross-border ecommerce sales – are you expecting any impact on duty free? Once the USMCA is ratified by all three countries and fully implemented, the de minimis threshold increase will be restricted to couriered goods only. It is a relatively narrow expansion of existing rights, with the impact primarily on commercial as opposed to personal purposes. Evidence suggests that2/3 of all couriered shipments are commercial. Even with the changes, alcohol
The FDFA Convention Gala. Left to right: Bob Bailey, MPP; Abe Taqtaq, Board Member, FDFA; Barbara Barrett, Executive Director, FDFA; Vic Fedeli, Finance Minister of Ontario; and Michael Parsa, MPP.
58 TRBUSINESS
and tobacco products will be restricted from the threshold, further limitting the impact on duty free retailers. However, we have met with government officials to seek clarification on this particular issue and emphasised that should expansion occur, it should be part of a comprehensive personal exemption re-evaluation to include border crossings. FDFA will continue to monitor very closely any new development on the de-minimis threshold and update our members. «
MARCH 2019
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