REALITY CHECK: Liberals and Conservatives side with billionaires… again

Another Conservative Opposition Day — another day for Erin O’Toole and Justin Trudeau to support for the big banks and ultra-wealthy.

Discussion of the plight of Small Businesses are back on the docket in the House of Commons. What’s missing is interest by Liberals or Conservatives in talking about onerous credit card merchant fees that are siphoning money away from small business owners to billionaire banks and credit card companies.

“This longstanding position of both parties to ignore credit card merchant fees strangling Canada’s small businesses is doubly painful given the challenging conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic," said NDP Critic for Small Business, Gord Johns. "While big-box stores are enjoying open doors and a boom in sales, small business owners are losing more money to uncompetitive interchange fees. Moreover, these unfair regulatory impacts are amplified with further unfairness toward online sales.”

By not acting to level the playing field, Liberals and Conservatives show they are more interested in protecting the profits of credit card companies and big banks. Though, given that the big six banks reported $13.9 billion in profit in the last 3 months of 2020, they probably don’t need the help.

“If the Conservatives and Liberals really want to help small businesses, they need to act now and help them stop losing money. NDP will place a hard cap of 1% on credit card transaction fees that are gouging local businesses. Canada’s small businesses deserve better,” added Johns.