Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank the committee for the opportunity to present today. For those unfamiliar with the Retail Council of Canada, we represent over 70% of core retail sales nationwide. Our members are drawn from grocery, pharmacy, general merchandise and spe

Finance committee  Yes, but it's variable across the industry, because some entities have done relatively well because they were deemed necessities through this piece. It has been particularly challenging for what you might call discretionary retail, unlike things like food and pharmacy. At its dee

Finance committee  It's hard to tell. What we did see was that retail had 40% more proposals at the close of last year than it had the prior year. That was atypical, actually, across Canadian industry. With the exception of arts, tourism and activities, basically, the number of bankruptcy proposals

Finance committee  Sure. I have all kinds of thoughts on input costs and how that could be affected. Some of that is probably not within the purview of the finance committee, but obviously you have a broad brief, so I could come back to that. One of the areas of challenge, actually, is in HASCAP.

Finance committee  The first thing I would say is that the government, of course, is making some moves with respect to the platform sellers with respect to tax collection there. Certainly one of the challenges that Canadian retail merchants have faced was the situation where a marketplace seller wa

Finance committee  Yes. To be honest with you, I'm not sufficiently familiar with the related party rules. We did look at that at the time the rules were put into place, but I wouldn't know how widespread that problem is or the different configurations that might be reasonable in business terms but

Finance committee  Sure. There was a significant move to address that. When the CERB was first introduced, it was a flat $2,000-a-month benefit. It precluded any income from employment. Therefore, we had the odd situation, especially with respect to part-time employees, where the government was of

Finance committee  Yes. It's a lesser issue, certainly, than the first challenge.

Finance committee  I am not deeply familiar with HASCAP, in large measure because, as I've noted, most retailers would not qualify for it as they wouldn't meet the three months of sub-50% revenue within the prior eight months. Therefore, we have not delved into it as deeply as others have. Certain

Finance committee  Is this any better?

Finance committee  It's a gaming headset from my daughter, but hopefully it will pass muster. Good afternoon. I want to thank the committee for the invitation to appear today on behalf of the retail sector. For those of you who may not be familiar with RCC, we represent over 70% of core retail sa

Finance committee  Currently, the average is 1.4%, down from 1.5%. That is system-wide, but of course it doesn't speak to the individual card in the individual setting. Some of those cards, including the newly introduced Mastercard MUSE, can range up closer to 2.5%, but on a system-wide basis it is

Finance committee  I can't speak to Walmart's specific rates, but in the past that has been particularly true. In fact, there used to be tranches such that if you were of a certain size, you definitively got a lower rate. The networks—under some pressure from government, I might add—have actually n

Finance committee  The easiest one for me to point to is the European Union. In the European Union, there's a hard cap of 30 basis points on any credit card. Not only is that a fifth of the average rate in Canada or thereabouts, but that's a cap, so you would anticipate that it's lower than one-fif

Finance committee  Certainly we would have appreciated the help to arrive sooner rather than later. I don't think there's any question about that. It is a complex area, because it requires a reconfiguration of rates, and there are differences between Mastercard and Visa, I might add. It also requir