Do-Not-Call Registry Coming to Canada

The Fred writes "The Globe and Mail reports that the Canadian federal government is looking to devise a national do-not-call registry to match the US attempt. Issues regarding the impact on charities are being analyzed."

Comments

CMA already has a do-not-call list

[perp]

The Canadian Marketing Association has had a do-not-call registry for a while now and it works pretty well; it has worked well for me anyway.

They are pissed off that marketeers who do not belong to their organization are not required to do the same.

You can have my phone number...

[rangefinder]

... when you pry it from my cold, dead Nokia.

I'd love to see a do-not-call registry in this country. However, given the track record of this government, I'll make the following not-so-bold predictions:

• If they say it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, it will cost billions. Even in Canadian currency, that's a fair sum.
• Because of the glacial pace of operations, the registry will be so out of date as to be useless.
• Random chunks of the database will be carelessly left within public view.
• The work of creating the database will be given to firms which have traditionally been financial supporters of the party.
• The database will be deficient in some fundamental way, e.g., it won't be able to handle multiple numbers for individuals, and correcting this will cost millions more.
• If the office handling the registry is outside Ottawa, it will be in a riding that elected a member of the party.

I could go on; colour me cynical. Far better than a "do-not-call" registry would be an "okay-to-call" registry. Why should I have to opt-in to prevent intrusive calls? If you want to receive unsolicited phone calls, you should jump through the hoops to get them, rather than others doing so to prevent them. The last thing I want to do is give this government my phone number. Let's not even start talking about filling out a census form....

Telemarketers for charities == phone spammers

[tomhudson]

Come to Mississauga. Every other week, I get a call from the Shriners, or the Peel Police, or Heart-and-Stroke, or Canadian Cancer Society, or some other charitable organization asking for pledges. This despite being told repeatedly that I would not like to receive these types of calls.

The overhead for telemarketing for charities is horrendous - something like 60 - 90% goes to the telemarketers. Avoid them at all cost.

And for those who don't believe it, here's a link http://http//www.forces.org/evidence/files/bryden1 .htm

MP's Report
Canada's Charities: A Need
For Reform

John Bryden, MP
Hamilton-Wentworth
October 1996

...snip ...

In early January CBC's Marketplace did an excellent report on the high cost to charities of using telemarketing firms. These are companies which specialize in telephone solicitation.

... snip ...

Not all the lines were filled out on the 1994 form but for 1992 they were. Here we find a total of $2.6 million was raised for a 77 per cent fundraising cost of about $2 million. The fee paid to "fundraising agents" was $1,350,621.

... snip ...

Examples are easy to find. Goals for Youth of North York is dedicated to help in school dropouts. Its T3010 form shows that in 1993 it paid an outside fundraising agent $84,194 while raising only $102,857.

In 1994 the Metro Toronto Branch of the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) spent $132,385 to raise $168,779. Indeed, given that the VON is fully funded by government to the tune of more than $15 million, it is not at all clear why it should be seeking donations from the public, or receiving them from the United Way.

Nothing has changed since the report was issued.

Simple rule of thumb - donating to telephone solicitors just encourages them, same as other spammers.