Competitions That Exclude Quebec

[ExcludingQuebec]

I need your help!

I have just started a web site dedicated to changing the Quebec Act called R.S.Q., c.L-6 "respecting lotteries, publicity contests and amusement machines." The Act is enforced by the RACJ.

http://excludingquebec.webs.com/

This is the offending legislation that excludes residents of Quebec from participating in most competitions in North America. Anyone that wants to hold a competition in Quebec must fill in paperwork and hand over a percentage of the prize value in fees to the Regie.

I have tried letters to my MNA and RACJ in order to get the Act looked at and at least research the consequences to find out the impact of it to residents of Quebec. So far not much has happened as you might expect.

My goal is to list as many competitions that exclude Quebec on the site as possible starting from 1 May 2010 in order for them to start taking notice. It would also let Quebec residents know just how much they are being disadvantaged by showing how many competitions they can't enter. It is also about charities and non-profit organizations that raise money for fantastic causes, but cannot do so in Quebec due to the restrictions.

I hope that fellow residents can support this campaign.

Please, this is not about language or politics. I don't speak French, but I am learning, so please bear with me as I muddle through trying to highlight this issue ..

Thanks in advance!!

[dimifrandz]

Hi Excluding Quebec,

I am also a resident of Quebec, and sometimes get frustrated that I cannot enter many contests. At the same time, I think that there are many more important things that my tax dollars can be spent on, and would be very upset to know that tax dollars were going towards changing legislation for contests. The RACJ is actually there to protect Quebec residents from bogus, or misrepresented contests (and there are many). I have contacted them in the past when I won a contest but couldn't seem to get my prize. They were very helpful.

You also might want to consider the flip side of things - there are quite a few contests that are exclusive to Quebec, and your chances of winning one of those are much greater than any national or international contest.

That's my 2 cents on the subject.

[raccoon]

I hope you can make someone take notice . I bookmarked your site and will try to add contests when I come across them.One thing to note is that some contests that do not allow QC on their main or English site have a separate site for QC.

Transcontinental Media for example has QC only contests for their magazines serving that area but nobody posts them on this forum , CBC does the same.So for all the " no QC " contests on here how many of them have an alternative french/QC option ?.

I do agree they are shut out of many contests but you will have to do some searching to find out which companies/contests actually completely shut out QC.

[ExcludingQuebec]

Hi Excluding Quebec,

I am also a resident of Quebec, and sometimes get frustrated that I cannot enter many contests. At the same time, I think that there are many more important things that my tax dollars can be spent on, and would be very upset to know that tax dollars were going towards changing legislation for contests. The RACJ is actually there to protect Quebec residents from bogus, or misrepresented contests (and there are many). I have contacted them in the past when I won a contest but couldn't seem to get my prize. They were very helpful.

You also might want to consider the flip side of things - there are quite a few contests that are exclusive to Quebec, and your chances of winning one of those are much greater than any national or international contest.

That's my 2 cents on the subject.

Hi dimifrandz,

Thank you for your reply to my post. I certainly appreciate your point of view. I do disagree that changing the RACJ registration requirements will adversely effect the protection of Quebec residents in contests. Most other jurisdictions in the developed world have consumer protection laws, as does Quebec. No other jurisdiction (that I am aware of) has such an onerous registration requirement for contests, consumer protection laws are normally able to deal with bad situations. Tax payers dollars should be spent on bolstering consumer protection laws if they are inadequate in the Province. I believe that our existing laws should be adequate. If they are not, I would like to understand why because that would scare me to death that we wouldn't have strong consumer laws.

It appears that you have been victimized in the past by unscrupulous contest organizers that did so even though the current Act is in place. The Act did not stop this behaviour and probably no Act will. You need to look at the effects of the legislation, not the intent. It is my position that the effect has been to exclude Quebec specifically from participating in many contests throughout North America. From small to large. I also wouldn't like to think that companies such as Harvey's, Penguin, La-Z-Boy, Symantec et al would be willing to affect their reputation by screwing over someone in QC if the Act did not exist in its current form. Don't get me wrong, I get your point of view, I just think that there are other considerations.

In terms of special Quebec only contests, yes there are. Each Province, Territory and State have their own contests open to their residents. You just need to look through this forum to see ON only, or BC only contests etc. I do not argue this point at all. Does it make up for the fact that most North American contests that open up to everyone and their dog, still exclude Quebec (and in many cases Quebec only)? My position is simply no. A change to the Act (not abolishment) would open it up.

There will always be bad companies and people that will try to screw other people. Effective enforcement of the existing consumer laws would be useful to ensure compliance, rather than have a situation where we are just barred from participation. I don't like the idea of a nanny state.

I also want to be clear that I would like the Act changed, but the website's primary function is to gather information on the contests that exclude QC. RACJ won't provide the information so it is useful to understand the situation first. They have specifically told me in a letter that only "some" companies choose not to register competitions in Quebec. I don't believe them at all, but I only have anecdotal evidence to support my position. I am starting to gather the information as you see and can then go back to RACJ and perhaps prove that this should be looked at again more objectively to determine the effects.

I really appreciate the discussion dimifrandz! Thanks again.

[ExcludingQuebec]

I hope you can make someone take notice . I bookmarked your site and will try to add contests when I come across them.One thing to note is that some contests that do not allow QC on their main or English site have a separate site for QC.

Transcontinental Media for example has QC only contests for their magazines serving that area but nobody posts them on this forum , CBC does the same.So for all the " no QC " contests on here how many of them have an alternative french/QC option ?.

I do agree they are shut out of many contests but you will have to do some searching to find out which companies/contests actually completely shut out QC.

Hi raccoon,

Thanks for the heads-up on QC versions, I will look and ensure that I do not include any that have QC only contests that are equivalent. I reviewed the ones that I currently have on the site and I don't see any QC versions of those at all.

I would love RACJ to provide stats on all contests, but it appears that they do not publish these. I may need to do an Access to Information request to get any stats. I suggested to them that compiling a list of contests that excluded Quebec would be a very good thing for them to do to ensure that they are keeping track of the effects of the legislation, however they have not responded. I don't think they would because they may not be able to justify the whole registration process and therefore revenue for RACJ if it was discovered that perhaps the legislation has had a negative effect. Thanks also for adding any new contests onto the website! It all helps!

There will be a story for the local paper in the next couple of weeks, reporters are starting to take notice, which is good. Thanks again!

[dimifrandz]

Hi Excluding Quebec,
I appreciate your point of view as well. Like I said, I am also in Quebec and get frustrated that I can't enter many GREAT contest... so, if you manage to get things changed, I will be grateful to you, BUT, if I hear that tax dollars are going into this... boy oh boy, I won't be happy, and I'll have a bone to pick with you !!! hehe.
Good luck in your efforts !

[ExcludingQuebec]

Hi Excluding Quebec,
I appreciate your point of view as well. Like I said, I am also in Quebec and get frustrated that I can't enter many GREAT contest... so, if you manage to get things changed, I will be grateful to you, BUT, if I hear that tax dollars are going into this... boy oh boy, I won't be happy, and I'll have a bone to pick with you !!! hehe.
Good luck in your efforts !

Don't get me started on Quebec tax!!

I believe that in Quebec we pay the most tax in the developed world apart from China! (and China probably has more services!)

Legislation is changed/amended/replaced all the time and this is what the National Assembly and our elected officials are supposed to do, so I don't see how it will be anything but business as usual. It wouldn't be any extra money to get the actual Act changed.

If RACJ can abolish positions or re-assign staff to other portfolios that process registration then I guess it might actually save tax payer money. I realize that there will be some loss in revenue from the registration fees, but I believe it is a wash with the administration overhead of the Act anyway. It is probably the reason that RACJ don't want to do anything with reviewing the effects because it could possibly reduce their head count.

All I want is to have the opportunity to win my airplane at the annual air show at Oshkosh, WI! If I can have that, then I no longer become a pain to RACJ!