Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the officials for explaining these various expenditures to us.
To help people understand, I would like to point out that supplementary estimates (C) is the third request you are making in addition to an initial budget that was established for fiscal year 2015-2016 and that mainly covers the early-2015 period. The idea is to explain the figures a bit, so that Canadians can understand what you are asking them in terms of budget increases.
I see that the department is requesting an additional $17 million to cover expenses associated with the acceptance of bank cards. I'd like to understand what that is about. Why was that additional $17 million not set out in either the main estimates or the two other supplementary estimates? What part of that increase covers additional fees for new banking software that would make it possible to accept a new payment technology? People may be wondering. What portion is intended for new equipment to allow presumably more transactions to be processed?
Could you explain to us a bit more why you are asking for new investments that were not planned until now? More particularly, I'd like you to reassure Canadians that the additional money will not be going into the pockets of the banks to make them even richer. The Canadians we meet daily tell us that they are paying too much in bank fees and that interest rates on their credit cards are too high. How can we assure them that this money is well invested and is not being used to generate profits mainly for banks?