Jim Balsillie ‘addresses the issue that IP rights create a neo-feudal economic structure, but is he all right with the masses suffering if they’re not Canadian?’Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Canada, IP bully?
Re For Canadian innovators, will TPP mean protection – or colonialism? (Jan. 30): Although Jim Balsillie did not come out and say the Trans-Pacific Partnership will increase inequality, he might as well have.
It is clear that the corporate owners of intellectual property rights will be the ones who profit most under TPP. The losers will be everyone else who has to pay the licensing fees. Mr. Balsillie addresses the issue that IP rights create a neo-feudal economic structure, but is he all right with the masses suffering if they're not Canadian?
He would have provided a greater service had he recommended reducing IP rights, rather than suggesting that Canada find ways to pile on with the other bullies. David Tindall, Grand Forks, B.C.
'Normal' Cuba
Re Our man in Havana (Jan. 30): Former diplomat Mark Entwistle, now a business consultant, is invariably upbeat about investment opportunities in Cuba. He does not mention two inconvenient truths.
First, the old mantra about Canadians having an advantage for simply being there before the Americans lifted the embargo is a fairy tale. For years now, Cubans have preferred to trade with Uncle Sam whenever they were given a chance.
And second, it's perilous to invest in a country ruled by an autocracy (not a "normal country," as he suggests) and one with erratic trade and investment policies. Ask Canadian businessmen Cy Tokmakjian and Sarkis Yacoubian, who recently spent years in a Cuban prison and saw assets worth millions confiscated by the government on what they have described as trumped-up charges. Forget about the right to a fair trial if the government decides to go after you for what is common practice in Cuba: corruption and tax evasion.
Yvon Grenier, political science professor, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, N.S.
Resourcefulness
Re Trudeau keeps digging himself into a resources hole (Feb. 1): Gwyn Morgan's Monday-morning grouchiness should be taken with a grain of salt. I'm sure Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's plug for resourcefulness applies to the oil industry as well.
As former head of Encana Corp., why doesn't Mr. Morgan promote some careful, detailed work on the pipelines he espouses to find the best routes, the best methods of safety oversight and the most appropriate end users? If the oil companies weren't so heavily profit-oriented, maybe they'd build some refineries in Canada, providing good technical jobs, so that all regions of the country have ready access to oil products refined in Canada.
If you aren't part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Janet Doyle, Victoria
Free, but valuable
Re Carbon challenge: the economic cost (Jan. 23): As representatives of an environmental charity and a business organization, respectively, we are generally supportive of Ontario's cap-and-trade proposal. The government deserves credit for an ambitious plan that will make a significant contribution to greenhouse-gas abatement.
However, one area is problematic: The plan offers all large industrial sectors (except electricity generators) 100-per-cent free permits for at least four years.
Free permits are valuable and should only be given to companies that face competitiveness challenges. In 2018, California will give 100-per-cent free permits to high-leakage-risk entities but only 50-per-cent free permits to low-risk ones. Ontario could be a leader by implementing such a system in 2017, before its U.S. counterpart.
Gideon Forman, policy analyst, David Suzuki Foundation, and Steven Fish, executive director, Canadian Business for Social Responsibility.
A world of lower returns
Re On growth, Stephen Poloz could use a little help (Jan. 9): William Robson is quite correct to suggest that the Governor of the Bank of Canada needs some assistance to stimulate growth since monetary policy can't do it alone. One way to increase savings (required for investment) in Canada would be to encourage increases to pension contributions, both public and private. In a world of lower returns, Canadians will need larger pensions just to meet their retirement expectations. David Enns, Cornwall, Ont.
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