Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague and friend, the member for Shefford, for her question. SMEs and merchants in Shefford, and in the rest of Quebec and Canada, are struggling with these excessive fees made possible by the credit card duopoly. These companies are using their power to rake in more money that does not end up back in merchants' or consumers' pockets.
The government's role is to notice this and take action, like Australia did with a law that caps the fees at 0.5%. Here, the fees are three times higher. If the government were willing to stand up to the duopoly and side with businesses and consumers instead, that would means 1% of sales volume that could produce a profit or help reduce the bill. That would make all the difference for retailers that rely on high sales volumes with very low profit margins.
The government could do something. The minister told us that she would take measures in her 2022 budget. However, she merely outlined some voluntary half measures for the credit card companies to take, and those half measures do not apply to these businesses. That is deplorable. It is clear whose side this government is on. It is on the side of Visa and Mastercard, not on the side of grocery stores and consumers.