Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to present the convenience channel's recommendations for the upcoming budget.
Let me first start by acknowledging the measures announced this week by the government relating to small businesses, particularly around rate reduction, which we had recommended. I'm very happy with the series of announcements that have come out this week. The remarks we put out earlier this week on those measures are in your kits. I'm certainly looking forward to working with all parliamentarians, including the Minister of Finance, to provide additional feedback as we get it from our members.
I'm going to speak directly from our slide deck, which is in the kit you have before you. The first four slides really give you an overview of the convenience retail channel in Canada.
Let me start with the number of convenience stores throughout the country. I'm very proud to represent a channel that, through over 27,000 retail locations in the country, provides goods and services to Canadians in urban, rural, and remote parts of the country. I also want to take the opportunity to thank many of you who helped us and supported us on national Convenience Store Day at the end of August, when we raised over $80,000 for the Children's Wish Foundation to help children in need.
In terms of employment, we have a nearly even split between full-time and part-time employment among the 27,000 locations. Approximately 234,000 jobs are directly attributable to the retail locations across the country.
As you see on the slide on taxes collected by convenience stores, our channel collects over $22 billion in taxes for all levels of government in Canada. It's something that certainly, as one of my members said, “We don't get paid to do this”, but we do it. It's an obligation that we take very seriously.
This takes me to the first issue I wanted to raise with the committee, credit card fees. That is on slide 5.
Our members use a number of methods to collect dollars from their customers, most notably credit cards. I think I've spoken to this committee before about the fact that Canada has among the highest credit card fees in the world, ranging anywhere from 1.5% to 4% per transaction. We certainly would like to see these fees come down. We believe that if other jurisdictions such as Europe and Australia can bring them down to 0.3% or 0.5%, Canada can certainly do the same.
We support Minister Morneau's review of credit card fees. Our understanding is that his review will conclude at the end of this year, and it's certainly our hope that, in time for the next budget, there will be some good news for retailers with respect to those fees.
On slide 6, in terms of some of our regulatory concerns, there are two bills currently in Parliament that are of concern to us. One is Bill S-5, which is the vaping and plain packaging legislation. We are very worried that this legislation will make the illicit tobacco market even worse while adding additional costs to small-business retailers, and at the same time doing very little to correct the unfair advantage vape shops currently have vis-à-vis convenience stores when it comes to selling vape products.
On slide 7, I want to highlight that as the largest channel for selling age-tested products, most notably tobacco and lottery, our members take their responsibilities very seriously. We have training modules in place that our members take on an annual basis. It was our channel that abided by Health Canada's rules on e-cigarettes, preventing them from being sold in our channel.
On slide 8, you will see some of our specific concerns and the feedback we received from our members with regard to plain packaging. Most notably, at the very end security concerns have been highlighted by our members, as well as increased costs to their businesses. Again we want to impress upon the committee and the government that our channel should not be an afterthought with some of these policies, but that in fact they will have a serious impact on them.
On slide number 9 we highlight the illicit market in Canada, which is fairly big. I would note that the government's marijuana policy specifically does not recommend plain packaging and also recommends low levels of taxation, which is counter to what you find with the tobacco policies that are being advanced. Certainly we believe that action needs to be taken on the illicit market first and foremost, to bring it under control, before Bill S-5 is looked at.
Slide number 10 looks at vaping, specifically providing for a level playing field, which we don't think currently exists in the legislation.
Moving on to slide 11 and 12, with regard to Bill S-228, which is currently moving into the House of Commons, there are serious concerns around the downstream implications for our members. For example, will employees under age 17 now be prevented or prohibited from handling products such as a box of chocolates or a bag of chips? These are some of the concerns that our members have. Will they have to change the layout of their stores to abide by the rules that could be coming as a result of this legislation? Again, there are a lot of unknowns, and the feedback we're getting from our members involves questions on the government's intent on this front.
I would say that our channel is committed to working with the government and all parliamentarians to ensure that there is a wide selection of goods available in convenience stores. In certain communities, convenience stores are the only game in town.
One of the things we have recommended in the past—and we will continue to do so—is to provide targeted tax relief, including measures that can help convenience stores to carry fresh fruits and vegetables.
On my final slide, committee members, you will see our list of recommendations. The issues I've just spoken to are provided in more detail on the left-hand side of your kits.
I would be more than happy to take any questions you might have. Thank you very much.
