For Immediate Release
April 2nd, 2013
Harper and Flaherty don’t care about Canadian consumers and merchants.
The Harper government responded to Senator Pierrette Ringuette’s bill S-215 and as expected, they have said ‘no’ to reducing the excessive credit card transaction fees hurting Canadian small business and consumers.
These fees are charged as a percentage of the transaction and increase the costs borne by merchants and increase the costs of goods and services for all Canadian regardless of their method of payment.
Since the bill was introduced on December 11, 2012, these excessive fees have cost Canadian merchants and consumers about $2 billion. As of April 1st, Visa increased their fees by 30% and MasterCard is planning an increase of 20% this year as well. These increases will add roughly $5 million a day, bringing the daily excessive cost to $23 million.
The government’s latest budget further penalized Canadian consumers by increasing tariffs on imported goods from 72 countries. By the government’s own estimates, this will add $333 million in tariffs annually.
Flaherty has also been attacking Canadian home buyers by meddling in the Canadian mortgage market. The latest example was his intervention to pressure Manulife Financial to reverse their decision to reduce their five year mortgage rate.
Canadians are asking where the Harper government’s loyalties lie; with higher consumer prices and mortgages for Canadians and more breaks for big business, I think we all already know the answer.
For more information:
Tim Rosenburgh
Office of Senator Pierrette Ringuette
rosent@sen.parl.gc.ca
(613) 943-2248