The research chair in taxation and public finance at the Université de Sherbrooke conducted research on the impact of applying the GST to various products purchased online from abroad. It was estimated that, for Canada as a whole, the lost revenue for the government in terms of these products amounted to between $864 million and $1.93 billion per year. Given a possible return to balanced budgets, this constitutes an attractive revenue stream for the government. It would also promote fairness between retailers based in Canada and Quebec and international platforms.
Apart from that, there's also a measure concerning interchange fees. Remember that interchange fees in Canada are among the highest in the world. Europe caps them at 0.5%, while in Canada they average 1.5%. Most recently, the rate was 1.4%. This measure would go a long way to putting some money back into the system. To give you some perspective, I'll use the example of the European Union. An estimated 800 million euros per year has been taken out of the pockets of European taxpayers simply by capping interchange fees.
There are other measures. We'll actively participate in the consultation announced in the budget, and we hope to see more concrete measures this fall.