Finance committee  Yes, I'm going to speak in French and English. Thank you. I am the president and CEO of the Retail Council of Canada. I also serve as co-chair of the Payments Accountability Council, which represents over 250,000 merchants across the country. I'm joined today by my colleague, Terrance Oakey.

Finance committee  Or for a harmonized tax?

Finance committee  For HST specifically?

Finance committee  First of all, the merchants are supportive of a harmonized tax. The challenge with internalizing the tax is that the tax is not the same right across the country. There is one province specifically that has no provincial sales tax, so this makes it very difficult for national retailers wanting to advertise a single price because in fact they could not if you force the combined tax to be hidden in the price of the goods.

Finance committee  There have not been any major changes to our position.

Finance committee  Discussions with government have centred on a code. This was discussed openly with different organizations. Our position was similar. We said that the only way this could work was if the code had meat on the bone. We will continue to advocate for a flat fee, and for the elimination of “honour all cards” and priority routing.

Finance committee  The reason I'm here today is that we are concerned. If the government is listening, it's not acting as quickly as our merchants are telling us it must. We've estimated that the new fees will cost merchants more than $300 million, with no changes to the system. That's difficult to deal with in fragile economic times.

Finance committee  In concrete terms, it would be a harmonization of environmental costs across Canada, on the understanding that every province and program can have different costs. It isn't the amount specifically; it's the way the amount is calculated, how you determine the amount of the sale of the product, that is to say that certain provinces want it to be internalized, while other provinces realize that this isn't a good idea from a competitive standpoint.

Finance committee  Thank you.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to first thank all members for the opportunity to provide retailers' views on the government's future economic direction. The last time the Retail Council was at this committee, we presented on the several credit and debit issues facing merchants.

Industry committee  Thank you for this question. I think we need to clarify something. This coalition is not asking for price fixing or for price caps. We are in fact asking for regulations for oversight for transparency and accountability. Since merchants cannot compete in a market where Visa and MasterCard own 95% of the credit card market, there should be a system in place to ensure that whatever they're charged has a correlation with the service that's provided.

Finance committee  Thank you for this question. I think we need to clarify something. This coalition is not asking for price fixing or for price caps. We are in fact asking for regulations for oversight for transparency and accountability. Since merchants cannot compete in a market where Visa and MasterCard own 95% of the credit card market, there should be a system in place to ensure that whatever they're charged has a correlation with the service that's provided.

Industry committee  I'd really like to answer your question by giving you a specific figure, and that's why we are suggesting the Australian model. In fact, authorities have studied the experiment over the past five years. There has been some transparency because the credit card companies are required to inform the Australian bank of operating costs and transaction costs, and that's how authorities have come up with a figure of 0.50%, or 50 basis points, that would be considered as reasonable.

Finance committee  I'd really like to answer your question by giving you a specific figure, and that's why we are suggesting the Australian model. In fact, authorities have studied the experiment over the past five years. There has been some transparency because the credit card companies are required to inform the Australian bank of operating costs and transaction costs, and that's how authorities have come up with a figure of 0.50%, or 50 basis points, that would be considered as reasonable.

Industry committee  You have two documents that contradict each other; is that correct? You're asking me which one is true.