Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to raise another issue that I think affects many people right across the country, but certainly disproportionately affects people who are at the low end of the income scale, and that's the issue of bank fees. This is something a lot of people feel they're being nickel-and-dimed on; they feel they're being charged to access their own money. Even if you're cautious in using bank machines, the reality is that for many people, based on their working hours, the only way they can access their money is through bank machines. It ends up affecting you in a kind of nickel-and-dime way, but it can add up to hundreds of dollars a year.
I know that more than 20 years ago the banks did not charge these fees, and today they're extremely profitable—I understand the profits last year were about $19 billion. At a time when many Canadians are finding their income certainly not growing, and in some cases declining, and especially in a place such as Toronto, where the cost of living is so high, how can we justify having bank fees for people to access their own money?
I know there are American subsidiaries of Canadian banks that no longer charge these fees. I know the British banks no longer charge them. Why are we still charging these fees here in Canada?