I want to reiterate, too, that the comments I am making today are based on the direct input we're getting from our various coalition members, notwithstanding what you're hearing in the media. I don't come here and stick my neck out that far. We're representing what we hear from our members, which are genuine small businesses in a variety of sectors.
The reason we favoured this from the outset, when the party that's now the government enunciated or outlined it in its election platform, is that we represent genuine small businesses and we want to see more fairness and transparency. We have advocated for that in a number of areas, and I'm not coming back to this committee in a few months to talk about credit card fees, for example, and look you in the eye and say we want more fairness and transparency and have you say, “A few months ago you said....” I struggle with that.
I am trying to reiterate that the comments I am making are based on actual feedback from genuine small business members, and the context is a continuing frustration for us, whether we're talking about the minimum wage in Ontario.... Maybe I could use that to emphasize my point. We don't want to get into a debate about the pros and cons of a 32% increase in the minimum wage in Ontario. What we always try to do is to look at the context that small business is facing right now.
We deal with a myriad of bylaws, confusing and contradictory holiday shopping, yet we have to compete with the e-commerce online, taxes—