Finance committee  Thank you. On behalf of the Canadian Convenience Stores Association, I'd like to thank committee members for the opportunity to speak with you in these pre-budget consultations. Most people may not realize that convenience stores are a cornerstone for rural and remote parts of

Finance committee  It's a tremendous problem for our retail members, for a couple of reasons. First of all, we as responsible retailers comply with the laws and regulations regarding the sale of tobacco. We work very hard on that and make sure that we are a partner with the health authorities acr

Finance committee  We do have great concerns about that, yes.

Finance committee  Actually, I can't answer that. I don't know.

Finance committee  We believe the code of conduct did have some very positive effects. The concern we have is that it's done little to impact the high rates of credit cards. The practices that we've seen the credit card companies continue to operate under, such as bundling of services and imposing

Finance committee  The Minister of National Revenue has advised us of the number of lost tax dollars at state of the industry addresses that we've had, so in 2010 Minister Blackburn gave us that number.

Finance committee  From what we understand the rates to be across the world, the United States pays the highest rates anywhere in the world. Canada is a close second, and other countries have lesser rates. The information that we have on our industry at $36,000 per year per site is very high. Unfor

Finance committee  From what we understand, in the United States the rates are about 0.25% higher than in Canada, and below Canada it would fall somewhere in the range of about 0.50% to 0.25% as well, going up.

Finance committee  Okay. Regulation within Canada continues to expand annually, and this has resulted in declining growth and prosperity for small business owners. We've identified over 517 federal and provincial laws that impact the convenience story industry. Despite government’s strong dedicat

Finance committee  The third is that the government follow through on their one-for-one rule announced in the red tape reduction strategy, ensuring that equally onerous laws are removed for every new law introduced, and that the federal government take the lead on these initiatives with their provi

Finance committee  Good evening. My name is Alex Scholten, and I serve as the president of the Canadian Convenience Stores Association. On behalf of the 23,000 Canadian convenience stores in Canada and the 183,000 people they employ, I want to thank you for taking time to listen to our concerns.

Justice committee  I would say that it's not just rural communities, but even urban sites, where having police attention to some of these matters is not very prompt. Retailers are frustrated by that. They feel the attention that is necessary to protect their business interests is not there. Givin

Justice committee  No, unfortunately we don't have that.

Justice committee  Yes, we would cover all stores that would be offering convenience items. That would include everything from a corner store to a stand-alone store to some of the small retail outlets you'd see in a shopping mall.

Justice committee  It would depend on the nature of the business and what the owner of that business dictated as being necessary. The typical age is 17 to 35. The late-night practices would depend on a business-by-business basis. Again, we have training for our retail members and the late hours and