Grand Forks may benefit from new Canadian import rules
May 27, 2012 at 6:41 pm in Grand Forks Herald
Starting Friday, Canadians will be able spend more money on U.S. shopping excursions without having to pay duties on their purchase when they return home. But Grand Forks area merchants are the ones hoping to gain from the break. Continue Reading

Might also add that the $C is above parity at about $1.03. Plus there’s the question of GST and PST which jacks the price of things in Canada up considerably.
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Not all Canadian Provinces have a PST.
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Manitoba does.
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Get a good look fellow Americans.
that “FREE” Heathcare Obama promised you is what drives every other price nation wide through the roof.
Taxes on goods and fuel to the government are where these funds to pay for their health care comes from.
They may get their limited “free” Healthcare (which they are trying to scrap due to cost) but in its place they get to cross the border and shop in the USA just to get affordable stuff.
Where will we shop when we are hammered with prices like they have? Canada? I guess Mexico will have to secure its border to keep the Americans from sneaking across to buy affordable goods, like the Canadians do now.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Good point.
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No, it’s not a good point. It’s a point based on inaccurate information and personal bias. Capt. has reduced a complex economic matter to a kneejerk opinion, that on further evaluation does not hold water.
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Lots of fancy words that didnt prove me wrong in the least.
Good job.
I can prove the higher cost of goods and services in Canada due to Federal taxes.
What have you got?
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Direct to you from the Canadian Health Services website.
“Publicly funded health care is financed with general revenue raised through federal, provincial and territorial taxation, such as personal and corporate taxes, sales taxes, payroll levies and other revenue. Provinces may also charge a health premium on their residents to help pay for publicly funded health care services, but non-payment of a premium must not limit access to medically necessary health services.”
A couple of things to note…. Sales tax, federal, provincial and territorial (That sure is a lot of taxation)
AND….Now that the cost has gotten so out of hand, they provinces may now charge a “Health Care Premium”
How is something free if you have to pay for it?
So, now the Canadians have to pay Premiums AND be taxed to death on goods and services.
awesome system, cant wait til our is in full swing.
…and, the non-payment thingy about not limiting access to services….. uh, huh. i’ll bet.
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I listen to a Canadian Radio Station. From time to time, one of the communities in Manitoba is trying to raise money for a piece of medical equipment for their regional hospital.
If the Canadian Gov’t provides health care, why does the local community have to buy some of the equipment to equip the local hospital??? Looks like there is not enough money to equip the hospitals.
From what I can tell, the major medical equipment is allocated to Winnepeg first, then to Brandon and so on.
Health care rationing is what happens with socialist healthcare. There is not enough money in the budget. If there was, then the local community would not have to raise local funds to equip its hospital.
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If the US was as civilized as Canada we would have a N. America (except Mexico’s part) that was healthier. We would be on our way to a society that wasn’t run by an oligarchic 1% brainwashing you “Social Darwinists” into scapegoating the poor as the basis of our problems.
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We live in a nation that wouldnt stop you from moving to Canada if you wanted to.
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Proportion wise more Canadians move to the US than vice versa, especially those Tories who left the US for Canada during the American Revolution & those that think the US oligarchy is just great. I chose to stay & fight the beast.
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I was thinking more along the line of Lorne Green, William Shatner, and Triple H.
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Civilized?
More like neutered.
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The lower standard of living in Canada is quite noticeable. That will change as the policies to lower our standard of living under the guise of “fairness,” is fully implemented.
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Guise of fairness? @ the end of the Civil War we needed a huge support system for the 100,000s of Southerners whose families were decimated by the loss of their soldier husbands & fathers. People who chose to support those programs became Dems. & the others Social Darwinist Repubs. IOW our Civil War is still haunting our society because the oligarchy has instituted “survival of the fittest” as Wall Street’s definition of social reality. Wall St. believes it & many follow this form of “false consciousness”. So we have this obsession with “free market libertarianism” which is a convenient way for the South to rise again using “wage slavery” as the def. of a just society.
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Policies to lower our standard of living? Please. This is stupefyingly ill-informed. There is not a shread of evidence that this is our government’s plan. I detect a hint of au-de-faux news.
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Yes, more canadians to invade grand forks and fargo on the weekends! Well it may be an inconvenience for us natives it is a great thing for our communities. They pump the canadian dollar into our state and local tax coffers.
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I agree. But, I do wish they would look out for pedestrians when they drive. I lost count how many times I’ve almost been ran over in a parking lot by a Manitoban vehicle; it’s ridiculous.
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Latest near-miss cycling was by a Manitoban driving through a cross-walk on red, but as it stands right now, the elderly of MN/ND are winning the battle of poor driving.
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Canadians have to be north dakotas third greatest natural resource only behind oil and farming!
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If Canadians actually looked @ the cost of buying in GF by factoring in mileage costs they would probably be breaking even (280 rt.x 55 cents/mi.= $260 minus $40 gas spent anyway = net cost of $240). So this is a cash flow issue for them, i.e. they are willing to pay an invisible deferred cost. Hopefully they just like to get away to visit the US.
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Spearman: the 55 cents is the amount the IRS allows per mile for using a private vehicle for work. If your employer reimburses you at this rate, they deduct it. No tax should be withheld by your employer.
The second option is you keep a detailed & verifiable log (in case you are audited) & you deduct it from your taxes.
I am lazy & turn in mileage on my expense voucher. I work with another nurse who prefers to claim her own.
Two ways to accomplish the same thing. The IRS has a handout covering the rules regarding use of personal vehiclems for work on their website
spearman said: On May 30, 2012 at 6:50 PM
FN, You act like you don’t know what a rhetorical question is. Why does an employer pay us to drive our own vehicle? Anything you see on the various websites that explain the rate say it is to cover wear & tear/depreciation & all the other costs that by best estimates means it costs 55 cts./mi. to drive a car. Therefore it is a wash to drive to Mpls. to fly vs. flying out of GFK. The only thing one gains is more cash flow in one’s present budget.
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I don’t see the point in all of the criticism of our neighbors to the north. There’s plenty of MN & ND drivers with the same bad habits and no shortage of impatience and rudeness. Regardless of the subject, these boards just bring out the meanness in many. I’m sorry I checked this story out.
Some of you people are pathetic.
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I agree Alvin. It would be interesting to hear comments about ND drivers in Winnipeg.
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No one goes to Canada…
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Then dont comment.
Who is truly the ignorant party on this one?
Those who have had issues with Canadian drivers or the one who comes in saying that because they dont see a problem there must not be one.
This wasnt about MN/ND people.
If you want to discuss that in detail it would take a whole other page.
People who think its 30 mph down Demers and 32nd and then cry “impatience” when the guy behind them is irritated because its a 40mph zone.
People who drive side by side at slow speeds causing traffic to back up behind them… i could go on for days.
Mark my words though, you will see an article in the future about a “Road rage” incident in Grand Forks due to the way people drive.
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Actually, Capt., this wasn’t about anything but a huge windfall for ND. Your type turned it into a free-for-all crabbing about your good neighbors who probably have fewer bad habits than you do. Most of this is off of the subject.
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It is perfectly legal and personal preference to drive side by side at low speeds. You can’t force someone to drive faster than they feel comfterable driving.
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With that being stated sometimes I feel less comfterable driving at the speed limit and drive significantly below it when someone is tailgating or being a jerk. I just feel more comfterable at that speed
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Now only if the state kept all the sales tax they collect from Canadians instead of giving it back to them in a rebate.
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