Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all of the witnesses for being here today.
I'd like to start with Ms. Kothawala of the Convenience Industry Council.
You mentioned in your opening statement about merchant credit card fees. I was really shocked when you said that it's the third-highest cost of conducting business in your industry. You mentioned that there was an increase in credit card usage that took place over the pandemic, so the fees have increased a lot more for your members.
I want to ask you, on changing consumer behaviour and seeing direct delivery, for example, Uber Eats, not to single them out specifically, but with organizations like theirs and others, those are all credit cards that people would have to use in order to get those products. Of course, there would be the merchant fees plus the fees that those companies take, which would also cut into their margins.
Is this the new way of doing business? Is this impacting your members? Is this one of the ways that credit card interchange fees are impacting them?