Health committee  Absolutely. These products have been around for several years. I think that as we're seeing or hearing today, and through the testimony given to the committee previously, there are public health benefits that can be achieved, so absolutely I think something should be done. This s

Health committee  I fully agree with the previous answer. Accessibility should be promoted as much as possible. I think that having the products available wherever cigarettes now are sold would be very important. As for having specialized staff or knowledgeable staff, we can certainly train our s

Health committee  Absolutely.

Health committee  If I understand your question, retailers are already acting in that manner through their controlled sale of tobacco products, so we would be acting in the same way through the sale of electronic cigarettes.

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members. We appreciate the opportunity to speak before you today. My name is Alex Scholten. I serve as president of the Canadian Convenience Stores Association. Our association represents the over 25,000 convenience stores operating in Canada t

Finance committee  Well, I would say right now, with the way credit cards are and the fees that merchants pay, all consumers are paying for those fees.

Finance committee  What we and our association members are saying is that if credit card fees are reduced, the price of goods and services in our stores will be reduced.

Finance committee  That's a good question. Thank you. Our association believes that what is absolutely necessary is to review why credit card fees in Canada are so expensive. This has been done in other countries. Australia is probably the best example. There they studied the issue over a three-ye

Finance committee  Absolutely, I acknowledge the logic in that. The problem is that I don't believe an awareness campaign is going to dissuade consumers from using credit cards. They're hooked on those loyalty programs.

Finance committee  That’s absolutely correct.

Finance committee  At this point in time credit card fees are a significant concern. The industry as a whole lost $254 million last year. At the same time, the credit card fees the industry incurred were in excess of $825 million. Many of our retailers don't have a lot of time to wait for something

Finance committee  Absolutely.

Finance committee  I can understand the logic of an awareness campaign to make sure the general public know what they are paying or what retailers are paying for a credit card transaction. Given that information, they will potentially change their means of paying. However, we've seen loyalty progra

Finance committee  We would like to see that.

Finance committee  I could answer that in terms of what happens in our industry. What you've mentioned is usually the death sentence for that site, when their tanks come to expiration. The owner is getting up in years and doesn't want to reinvest. What happened in Wallace, Nova Scotia is probably