The National Post began a series of articles this past weekend, looking at how “Canada’s tangled subsidies and trade restrictions are stunting economic growth and cheating consumers.”
Saturday’s Post also had an article bemoaning the delays in implementing the national do-not-call list (DNCL).
Efforts to set up a long promised registry where consumers can declare their phone numbers off-limits to telemarketers have been delayed, in part by controversy over how to pay for it.
The do-not-call registry is an example of paternalistic government intervention. The legislation does nothing to stop the bad eggs from being bad, but the responsible telemarketers are at risk of being saddled with even higher costs, chasing more jobs off-shore where enforcement will be that much tougher.
Is the DNCL becoming another gun registry? Are we going to harm carrier call centre revenues and domestic call centre jobs?
Who will track the unintended consequences of what seemed to be well intentioned consumer-friendly legislation?