The founder and executive chair of
Vancouver-based retailer
Aritzia Inc.
said Canada needs to follow the American lead in lowering the limit on the
duty-free shopping exemption
.
Brian Hill, whose family opened the first Aritzia store in British Columbia’s largest city in 1984, also said
immigration policy
is costing his
luxury clothing operation
some top talent, during an event on Wednesday.
Hill acknowledged that “
on the tariffs
, the playing field is level. All our competitors are dealing with the same tariffs,” he told the Real Estate Forum in Toronto.
However, the same can’t be said for rules governing what is called the de minimis exemption, which previously allowed international packages valued at less than US$800 to enter America duty-free.
The United States ended that exemption in August and it is costing Aritzia $100 million annually, he said.
“We are shipping about 70 per cent to 80 per cent of our product from our distribution centres in Vaughan (north of Toronto) and one in Vancouver. And about 80 per cent of our
e-commerce business
is going to the U.S. We are now paying duty on all the products going into the U.S.,” said Hill.
His issue is that Canada is not doing anything similar. “We are always quite late to the party,” said Hill, noting that while the de minimis exemption is lower in Canada at only $150, it is still a level that
exempts most imports
based on average transactions.
“A lot of the fast fashion is shipping into Canada duty-free,” said Hill, adding that it includes online companies from China but also the United States. “If anybody knows the Prime Minister, we would appreciate getting rid of this or taking it down.”
In an interview with the Financial Post, Hill said his call for changes to de minimis exemptions in Canada was not about retaliation but to even the playing field at home.
“We have a
$1.5 billion business in Canada
and pay duty on every one of those items that come into Canada that we give to our clients,” he said. “But a large portion of products sold in Canada through e-commerce channels comes in duty-free because they don’t have a warehouse here, and they ship it duty-free from China, (or other countries). All these Canadian retailers are at a disadvantage.”
Hill also called on the Canadian government “to get out of our way” of businesses, targeting immigration issues. The federal government recently reduced permanent resident admission targets to 380,000 per year for three years, down from 395,000 in 2025.
“We are trying to build our teams,” he said, adding Aritzia is not looking to tap the temporary foreign worker market. “We are trying to grow our business and trying to be an international retailer.”
But immigration laws are making it costly for Aritzia to source skilled positions such as pattern makers, Hill said. “We can’t bring them in. … We need these people to create beautiful products, and Canada doesn’t have them.”
The company has lost candidates, or at least been inconvenienced, he said.
“If we are really pumped on someone, we have to pay for them for a really long time and to keep them idle to go through the motions (of immigration),” Hill said. “What we need are qualified senior people who have experience.”
• Email: gmarr@postmedia.com
Aritzia founder calls for Ottawa to scrap duty-free imports to help Canadian retailers compete at home
2025-12-04 17:53:31
