Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine. Like me, she knocks on a lot of doors and participates in many events in her riding.
That is why she raises some very real issues in the House. She also understands that we are always getting the same question from people of all ages: why do the banks make billions of dollars in profits every year, regardless of how the economy is doing, but families are more and more in debt?
Rent, food and hydro are costing more and more. We are in debt on all sides. Now, it does not even make sense to withdraw our own money. It can sometimes cost $4 or $5 to withdraw $20. Imagine the massive profits the bank is raking in. It makes no sense that it costs $4 or $5 to withdraw our own hard-earned money, which we deposited.
That is why we need to take this seriously. We are legislators and we represent the Canadian public. We need to put banks in their place. Yes, they can make a profit, but not 700% or 800%. That makes no sense. We need to put banks in their place by adopting a prime plus 5% rate for credit cards and setting ATM fees at 50¢ per transaction, maximum. The NDP is the only party that has proposed this.