Thank you, Mr Chair.
I appreciate the mover being open to my motion, but the reality is that I only have what I have in front of me, and it's not up to me to fix what's in front of me. I can tell you that the reason I brought my motion to this committee was that I need help.
I have been fighting the credit card agencies and companies for two decades. I go back to when we used to actually hand out scripts to have people switch companies so that they could get lower rates. We had around 1,700 people—until they got wind of what we were doing, having people switch rates amongst companies—get the lower rates. Therefore, this issue in front of us, again, will then make mine suburban, and I need help on that issue.
During COVID, we fought really hard to get 10% off the 20%. I spent six months working on that, and it was a real result that we got a reduced rate. Then, we also fought to get two months interest free, so I know, specifically, that my motion can yield results for people. We also took on Capital One for the privacy breach, which has been an issue I've brought here to this table before regarding fraud and so forth.
I appreciate that what's specifically in front of me here is a potential issue, but at the same time, given the time that we have and what I have in front of me, I know I can get results, and I need the help of this committee. We need national attention on credit card companies to bring to light that other countries do not have the same systems in place that we are being abused with. You can point directly to Australia, to the United States or to the European Union. You can point to all these different things. I want to get at that with any time that we have available. That's why I can't support the motion. I can't really fix it with regard to the time frame in this situation. I can't affect what other parties are going to do and so forth. All I know is what I can bring to this table.
Again, I brought it on Monday when we had witnesses here. I haven't brought many things to this committee because we've actually had some really good work and studies here, but I think it's time that we dealt with this issue. Quite frankly, I need help on that issue. I can keep doing what I want out there, and it's going to have a result. We're going to get some changes and we're going to get some attention, but the reason I bring things here is that I need help for those things. What I want is my study.
I appreciate this motion in front of us. I'm not going to get into the details of the merits and the politics and things of it. I know what I'm doing, and I know what this committee can do. We can actually get results for Canadians if we shed some light on it. For those reasons, I can't support the motion at this time. I really hope that we can get to what I put in front of us because I don't bring things here to this table that I don't think will get action.
That's why I want the credit card issue dealt with at a committee level, because it is much more substantial than any individual member of Parliament for any particular political party out there by themselves. It needs a home for a full investigation, and this home really needs to be in the industry committee because it is an industry issue, not just a finance issue. It's an industry issue because of the lack of competition, the privacy concerns and the collusion, which in many respects are at the cost of Canadians. It's time that we shed some light on that.
Thank you.