The ruthless oligopoly's combined income last year was between $45 billion and $60 billion, equal to the entire deficit of the federal government. Let's start with that.
I'm glad to see the commissioner and his colleagues here.
When it comes to competition, I'm in sort of a big dilemma here. Let's take the example of the steel sector, where there's open competition and there's no restriction on investment, foreign direct investment. Today, all companies in the steel industry are foreign-owned. What is the result? There has been no increased manufacturing capacity of steel in Canada for the last 20 years. They don't export to any market other than the U.S. and Mexico, even though we have signed agreements, around 15 to 20 free trade agreements, across the world. That is the drawback of having free competition and free ownership by foreign actors.
When it comes to the banking sector and the ruthless oligopoly where there has been $50 billion or $60 billion in profit, every single dollar comes from hard-working Canadians. We see what is happening there.
I want to ask you a question on Interac or e-transfer. Let's take e-transfer for a moment. If I want to transfer $11,000 from one bank, CIBC, on one end of the street, to Scotiabank at the other end of the street, it takes one week. In countries in the global south, it can be done in seconds. The countries in the global south are still developing and have low literacy. We are supposed to be the most developed country among the G7 countries.
I don't know whether those sorts of things come into play when you look at banking practices. Do you have the power to compel divestment, or do the existing owners of Interac have the power to sell their shares if you find that there are deceptive practices there?