Agriculture committee  Actually I pretty much agree with Ms. Hillard. I think that it is important for the terms to be clearly defined and for information to be given to consumers. Regardless of the term used, whether it’s “Made in Canada” or “Product of Canada,” consumers must know precisely what the term means.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Michel Arnold and I am the Executive Director of Option consommateurs. I am accompanied by Nalini Vaddapalli, who is an agri-food analyst and lawyer with Option consommateurs. Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen of the committee, I also wish to thank you for inviting us and for giving us an opportunity to share with you our thoughts on the main expectations and concerns of consumers with regard to agri-food product labelling.

Finance committee  Absolutely. I think it would be a good idea to go even further by demanding a review the Competition Act. In fact, 60% of retail trade is in the hands of four major companies: Wal-Mart, HBC, Sears, and a fourth company who's name I have forgotten. They're all listed in my notes.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I had not been notified that the committee's work schedule had been moved up, which is why I arrived late. I sincerely apologize for that. The wrong person had been notified. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I would like to thank you for giving us this opportunity to share with you our comments on the impact of a surging Canadian dollar.

Finance committee  You're right. I will give the floor to Jannick in two seconds. You're right to say that some financial institutions appeared in your riding, and we see this in other ridings as well. These are generally ridings where there are people who are—

Finance committee  Yes, but if we don't give access to branches, we will see the appearance of these notorious no-name ATMs in various businesses. The consumers do—

Finance committee  The fees will go up.

Finance committee  In fact, we're seeing the reverse. The more money you have, the more transactions you have and the less it will cost you. I'd like to correct one thing. Based on what Mr. Protti said, the perception of the banking system has changed a great deal in the past few years. That's quite true.

Finance committee  The scope of our proposal goes beyond banks. We're also proposing that ways to limit these fees in the private sector be examined. It's important that this issue, which is an important one for consumers be addresses by Parliament.

Finance committee  Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, thank you for inviting Option consommateurs and giving us an opportunity to express our views about automated teller machine fees. For those of you who are not familiar with our group, Option consommateurs was established in 1983. We are a cooperative involved in defending and promoting consumer rights mainly in Quebec, but we are interested in many Canada-wide issues as well.