Thank you.
First, on behalf of the witnesses here today, we want to thank the joint committee for holding these hearings and for tackling this thorny issue.
The importance of these hearings cannot be overstated. They provide the opportunity to shine a light on the seemingly never-ending proliferation of higher fees and new charges from the credit card companies. These fees should be a major concern to the government because they hit at businesses and consumers alike. Following our testimony and that of other witnesses, we hope the committee will recognize the need for government to act.
In order to provide more time for questions, and since members of the coalition share the same concerns, with members representing more than 250,000 businesses from coast to coast, the following organizations have agreed to make a joint presentation: the Retail Council of Canada, the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors, the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association, Conseil québécois du commerce de détail, Association des détaillants en alimentation du Québec, and Association des hôteliers du Québec.
We're pleased to say that we have two witnesses with us representing business. They are Mrs. Brenda O'Reilly from Newfoundland, as an independent restauranteur, and Monsieur Louis-Robert Handfield, as an executive in the hotel business, who will also be on hand to answer questions.
The Stop! Sticking It To Us coalition came together in 2008, the vast majority of our members being small independent businesses in retail, hospitality, food services, restaurants, and other service sectors. They are extremely concerned with the rapidly rising credit card merchant fees and impending new debit card schemes that will be introduced by Visa and MasterCard. At the heart of the issue is Visa and MasterCard's duopoly, representing 94% of the credit card market in Canada, thus having the market power to force increasingly high fees for their services, as seen in recent months. Both merchants and consumers are paying the price.
Make no mistake about it, even credit card company executives view merchant fees as a cash cow, as you will see on slide 4. Allow me to quote the former vice-president and assistant general counsel for Visa International and Visa U.S.A.:
[Issuers] began to view the interchange reimbursement fee not as a revenue reallocation mechanism to ensure success of the system, but as a demand-driven pricing scheme to collect as much revenue from merchants as the market would bear.