Madam Speaker, I received a phone call from a grocer in my community who sells organic products. The store is called Choices Markets, which is where I shop. The business owner said that the key business challenge and the key concern the store had right now was the power of the credit card-bank partnership to cost the business potentially more than the margin it makes on its sales. The stores that sell food to people need to make money but if their costs keep going up 1% or 2%, they will need raise the price of the food to consumers or go out of business. Raising prices is very hard for consumers to pay at this very difficult time.
In the House of Commons on April 23rd, 2009. See this statement in context.