Another part of the cost of living in a remote community.

One hears a lot about the high cost of living in remote communities: food, fuel, etc. But it is easy to overlook another factor that makes things expensive up north - the cost of shipping.

Today, I am giving a small example.

A friend of mine has a son in law who lives in Fort Albany. His wife wanted to give him a cover for his iphone 3 with a Toronto Maple Leaf logo on it. We couldn't find anything in Timmins, let alone in Moosonee so I went to ebay.

Found one from a place in California. It cost US$12.99 plus US$3.98 shipping. Not exactly a bargain but a week before Christmas it seemed like a good idea. Shipping in Canadian dollars from California to Moosonee, a distance of a couple of thousand miles, was $4.05.

Once it got here I mailed it to Fort Albany. Cost of mailing a distance of 90 miles was $17.40.

The cost of shipping effectively doubled the price from the amount that someone living in Moosonee or Toronto would pay for this very small item.

The recipient and his wife are happy but I suspect they would be just as happy if shipping rates were more reasonable.