Let me add to this.
This in fact that would be an appropriate question to ask Visa and MasterCard. We certainly hope the committee will not accept the answer they usually give, which is that they don't share that kind of market information. Everyone knows the acquirers do.
The point I'm making is that a year and a half ago the premium card market represented 2% of the entire credit card market in Canada. Those were high spenders. Since then, Visa and MasterCard have changed the rules around who qualifies, but they told all industry associations that this was going to be a minor change and in fact people getting premium cards are high spenders. They're not just fun loyalty cards. They told us very clearly that you needed to qualify. To qualify does not mean that during a recession you go from 2% of Canadians who can qualify for a premium card to 35% of Canadians qualifying for a premium card.
What's fascinating is that we have a member like Giant Tiger, which caters to low-income Canadians, appear before the Senate banking committee, and they saw the use of premium cards go from 0% in March 2008 to 35% in March 2009. The point here is that it has a huge impact on business. Certainly there would be great examples.
I would encourage Brenda to talk about the impact it's had on her business in Newfoundland.