Mr. Speaker, first, I need to clarify that in the deal the government came up with for Visa and Mastercard, there was no requirement for payment processors like Stripe to pass the savings along to small businesses. Advocacy groups have pointed out that these payment processors are actually hoarding these fees. Therefore, the government probably should have some sort of formal regulation to ensure that this situation is not happening.
Second, I need to point out and re-emphasize that Canadians do pay for e-transfer fees. They pay for it one way or the other, such as very high banking fees.
Third, even though the government has had nine years, it has not moved on these junk fees or done anything materially to allow for more competition in the banking industry. We are behind other jurisdictions in allowing for innovation in financial services writ large.
However, my colleague mentioned a company, and this is why the wording of the motion was broad. We are encouraging the competition commissioner to look at the payment system writ large. The spirit of the motion today is to say that there needs to be cross-partisan agreement that our banking system is outdated, that it is controlled by a few big players and that Canadians, be it individual consumers, companies or whatnot, are suffering because of it.