Madam Speaker, I thank my previous colleague for his intervention and for answering questions.
As a New Democrat, my motion got the credit card study going that is in the committee today. Now we have this debate taking place, which I am grateful for because we need more attention put on these fees and outrageous costs to consumers. Yes, the government system can have taxation policies that relate to how people afford certain things and how businesses interact and so forth, but on top of that, regulations are necessary.
Through the Conservatives, the Bloc and even some Liberal members, some really good testimony has come out of the questions that have taken place. I am a bit perplexed, though, because today at committee, the Liberals attacked me when I was questioning issues related to information being shared. They are now opposing this issue, apparently, and attacking us when we talk about fees that are costing Canadians at this very moment way more than the averages across the rest of the globe's industrialized countries.
This should be dealt with right away through regulation. We do not need legislation. It can be done through the finance minister. Evidence coming out quite clearly shows that our interchange fees, which have been adjusted a bit by the government, are not in line with those of other countries, such as Australia and countries in the European Union, and other places. In fact, this has exposed the Liberals' poor conduct on this issue, which has become clear as day. They are basically treating Canadians as second-class citizens when it comes to these fees and when it comes to businesses that have to pay them.
I started one of my questions today talking about Interac and the formation of it. Most Canadians probably do not even know that Interac is owned by the banks. It really came about in the 1980s, 1986 being, I believe, the specific date. They got together to look at how they could cash in on financial transfers that would take place electronically.
Thinking about innovation, I come from the auto sector, and in the 1980s, we saw a certain type of automobile. If we had to pay the same amount for that automobile as we pay right now and its innovation was the same, we would laugh, unless we wanted to collect a classic car and go back to a K-car or something like that from the 1980s. Meanwhile, when we look at how much money has gone—