The Canadian Booksellers’ Association has urged the country’s government to reject Amazon’s application to operate their own Canadian-based warehouse and fulfillment operation. But an article in the Globe and Mail quotes an unnamed senior official who indicates the Harper administration is “leaning towards” approving Amazon’s plan, believing there is a “net benefit” to Canadians. That person added, “If you look at the issue specifically, it’s Amazon setting up a warehouse to be able to distribute what they already distribute via the Internet. There’s no change in terms of Canadian content.”
Part of the booksellers’ argument is that “individual Canadian booksellers have traditionally played a key role in ensuring the promotion of Canadian authors and Canadian culture.” But Amazon vp of global public policy Paul Misener says: “At some level it seems preposterous that that claim could be made, especially given our track record of eight years serving Canadian customers and authors and publishers. To claim that somehow an American company can’t help Canadian culture is just proved wrong by the facts.” Misener points out that Amazon sells Canadian-published works to customers from over 170 countries. “I don’t think anybody is doing anything near this to help disseminate Canadian cultural products globally.”
He says they want to cut supply chain costs and pass them along to customers, while also “increasing the number of categories of products available, just like we have elsewhere in the world.”
Globe and Mail