Again, it seems to be a very narrow, sectoral issue that I would commend to the Competition Bureau to study through a market study, followed by recommendations, as opposed to a more high-level approach.
We've dealt with credit card issues in the past at the bureau. As you may know, an order was imposed on Interac for debit cards and debit fees which imposed very low rates, and that was a result of the good work that was done by the Competition Bureau. If there is some anti-competitive behaviour behind those high rates, again, that would be something the bureau would take on with its enforcement mandate.
I would suggest that it might be worthy of a market study, and recommendations could be given to the government to change rules, with Finance Canada or whomever, to allow for a more competitive market, which could perhaps lower fees for small businesses.
It's not just the domestic issue. Unfortunately, credit card rates, fees, are high for merchants around the world, but I'm sure that a study could help with some ideas, because it's not clear what the answer is. Following one of our cases dealing with credit card rates at the Competition Tribunal, they said that maybe this is an area for regulation, because market forces just don't work properly.