Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm going to be splitting my time with one of my colleagues. I'm going to fire off three things.
First, just a statement. I appreciate what you said about cash, Mr. Carr. I think you also need to include cheques, and I'm not trying to correct your presentation. I remember being in business and waiting until the end of the month and seeing if that cheque was going to bounce.
Second, I've asked for a study. I appreciate what you've just done for Mr. Mulcair. I wonder if there is a study, and I've asked a number of other witnesses to follow consumer spending with consumer card use. In other words, is there a study that proves or disproves that as credit card use increases the spending increases as well, so there's a net benefit for the merchant as well?
Third, and finally--you don't need to answer this right now--there's been some talk about the credit card and how it has led to increased usage and possibly some problems with increased usage. Is the role of government to interfere with consumer habits? Aside from possibly making it mandatory to send a pair of scissors with every credit card, is it the government's role to correct or guard against bad behaviour and credit card use? I'll just open that up.