Yes, unfortunately the banks were mostly motivated by profit in developing this technology. They wanted to get their filthy 3.5% of profit on the market of the small pocket change.
That's at the cost of Canadians’ privacy because that technology is not protecting their privacy. If I steal your credit card from your wallet, you'll probably notice because I have to put my hand in your pocket at some point, but with this new technology I don't even have to do that. I only have to get close to you in the metro, on the subway, or within 10 centimetres, and that's it; I've stolen your credit card credentials and I can make transactions on it. The technology that they themselves have created could prevent that, but they've deployed it in a mode that is less secure, for the time being, because they don't want to have to invest the money required to change the infrastructure for the payment terminals.