As concerns banking fees, Canadian financial institutions made a commitment to the Department of Finance to offer accounts with moderate fees.
As you know, Canadians generally have access to accounts that allow for between 7 and 10 transactions at a monthly fee of $3. However, we know very well that Canadian consumers perform much more than 7 to 10 transactions per month. In fact, they use their debit card to perform an array of banking transactions.
Therefore, we should perhaps ask financial institutions to increase the number of transactions that are allowed in low-cost accounts. That is an idea for example that could be studied by the government and on which an agreement could be reached.
In fact, it is not a law. It is an agreement that was reached with some financial institutions, that is respected and that has a domino effect on other financial institutions. Given that some of them have the obligation—and I am referring especially to the largest Canadian financial institutions—to offer low-cost accounts, the other institutions are encouraged to offer the same thing, given the competition.
Think of the credit cooperatives. In Quebec, we have a major one, Desjardins, which must also offer accounts at competitive prices. So this type of approach has a beneficial effect on the market. It could be an idea.
As concerns credit card fees, we first have to tackle criminal interest rates, and reduce them by at least half if not more.