Hockey to be cheaper under game plan

‘To benefit families and retailers’

TORONTO • Hockey retailers and manufacturers reacted favourably to news the federal government aims to cut tariffs on equipment of Canada’s official winter sport, offering the possibility that consumer prices will come down.

Changes to tariffs, contained in Budget 2013 on Thursday, call for $76-million in annual cuts to everything from sports and athletic equipment to baby clothing “to benefit families and retailers.”

“This initiative will allow the government to assess whether tariff elimination can help narrow the price gap for consumers in Canada, and will guide future decisions,” the budget said.

The government plans to eliminate current tariffs of, for instance, 18% on ice skates and baby clothing, as well as drop tariffs of between 2.5% and 18% on hockey equipment — all effective April 1. Current tariffs will also be eliminated on skis and snowboards, now at between 6.5% and 20%, as well as on golf clubs and exercise equipment, currently at 2.5% to 7% and 6.5%, respectively.

“On its face, if the duties are removed and our landed costs go down, we will be able to sell products to retailers at a lower price and if they pass that on to the consumer, hockey becomes less expensive,” said Kevin Davis, president and CEO of Kitchener, Ont.-based Bauer Performance Sports Ltd., the biggest global manufacturer of global hockey equipment.

“Then hopefully more kids will play, or the kids that are playing will buy more equipment.”

Duties on equipment can add up to significant price differences from country to country, Mr. Davis said, and in Canada the duty depends on the type of product and its country of origin. “In the case of apparel, it can be country of origin plus the materials (textile duties).”

Bauer’s popular Vapor X5 skates sell for a suggested retail price of US$329 in the U.S. and for $399 in Canada, for example.

The high price of hockey gear, a roughly $200-million wholesale market in Canada, is a reason frequently cited by parents who do not enrol their children in the sport. Despite the sport’s seeming popularity, hockey is a slow-growth recreational activity in Canada.

“We just launched a program with Hockey Canada to study why nine out of 10 families in Canada choose not to make hockey a sport that they participate in,” Mr. Davis said.

Canadian Tire, the country’s largest sporting goods retailer and seller of hockey equipment, was among the retailers last year that presented before the Senate committee on the tariffs issue.

“We congratulate the federal government for its leadership in addressing tariff discrepancies between Canada and United States that sometimes cause Canadians to shop south of the border to benefit from cheaper prices,” said Duncan Fulton, Chief Marketing Officer, at the retailer’s FGL Sports division, which operates the company’s Sport Chek chain.

“As the cost of importing sporting goods begins to come down, we will certainly do our part to make sure consumers see the benefit,” he said.