Agriculture committee  It's the fidelity agreement.

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, it's a different world, let me tell you. When you go out through those gates, it's a different world. It's worth seeing.

Agriculture committee  Yes, I think it would be the Quebec model, although--and you might check this--when Loblaws got religion last year and started to really promote buying locally, they allowed relaxation of fidelity for buying local product. It would be interesting to see what they did and how they did it.

Agriculture committee  You need a critical mass. I would suggest you've got two, Montreal and Vancouver, that are obvious. You may have a possibility in Calgary, which would serve Saskatchewan and Alberta, but Vancouver and Montreal are ones that would support. I'm going to make an offer, Mr. Chair.

Agriculture committee  I'd be happy to arrange that, Mr. Chair.

Agriculture committee  They have the power to deal with a lot of things; they choose not to. They said that in front of this committee as well, that they are only interested in low prices to the consumer, essentially. But if you look at the preamble to the act or if you look at their website, it doesn't say that.

Agriculture committee  Mr. Easter, we have asked for, and received, a slot on May 7 to appear in front of the Senate banking committee, and we've asked for, and received, a slot for the industry committee.

Agriculture committee  There has to be. Yes.

Agriculture committee  We even make sure that every couple of years the chair comes from one of those little wee stores. Last year's chair came from a very tiny store.

Agriculture committee  We do a couple of things, and this might be interesting for some of those who are looking at this local stuff. First of all, we run the two largest trade shows in Canada. We run a big one, Grocery Innovations Canada, in November in Toronto. We run Grocery Showcase West in Vancouver; next year it will be at the end of April.

Agriculture committee  Some 50% to 75% of all transactions in a retail food store in Canada are by debit card. For whatever reason, Canadians are more reticent to put their food on credit cards than they are in the United States. The debit card issue is huge for us; it's just huge. Let me explain very quickly, and we're going to be doing so in front of the Senate banking committee in a few weeks.

Agriculture committee  Yes, of course, and that does happen across Canada. You're talking about major volume here. Not every store has the freedom your IGA does to do what they're doing. That's what I was trying to explain before about the fidelity issues. Not every store has the opportunity to do that.

Agriculture committee  We have about 4,000 members across the country. They can be large. In fact, the largest food floors in Canada are Highland Farms, which are pure food floors. They're in Toronto. I don't know of any independents in Alberta that are not members of CFIG. Sunterra and the majority of the Sobeys stores in Alberta are franchise stores.

Agriculture committee  Okay. The IGA is owned by the Lovsins. They're part of it. We have a huge membership in Alberta. We have an affiliation in Quebec. They have their own provincial association, and we speak for them on a national basis when we're in hearings like this, so that would augment our numbers significantly.

Agriculture committee  CFIG's principle is to further the unique interests of independent franchise grocers. That's number one. Number two is that we're governed by an elected board of 18 directors. Every year the chair changes. That's a good thing for me, because I get to keep my job, and they don't get upset with me.