The Consumers' Association has taken the view that this piece of the marketplace is working very well. We like it as it is. We don't want any changes; we see no reason to change.
When we came out with our position several months ago, after Mr. Layton made his statement, we had 3,000 to 4,000 e-mails, 90% of which were supporting our view. There were a smattering who didn't think the system was very good, but mainly because they thought the banks were making a huge profit. The criticisms we got were not relative to the reality of what was happening. The fact that 75% of people are making their withdrawals at their own branches and not paying fees is, I think, a very significant item.
There was a little piece of misinformation this morning from one of my colleagues—I've forgotten which one here—who mentioned that you are charged fees by credit unions. It's my understanding that with any credit union, if you belong to one, you get free access to your money at any other, no matter which province it's in.
In effect, what we have is a system that's working very well. If you don't want to take money out from a second bank's machine and pay $1.50 extra, you don't have to. Obviously people are very well aware of that. If you don't like the banks, you can go to the credit unions.
My organization looks for choice. We also look for consumers to help themselves where it's possible. I haven't seen any real arguments that there's anything wrong with the system we have operating now. My advice to the committee is, why fix something if it's not broken?