LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Conservative neglect of credit card fees costing small business billions
Dear editor,
While Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has finally taken some action against abusive business practices of pre-paid credit cards, he continues to ignore the elephant in the room: outrageous credit card fees that cost small businesses billions every year.
Each year, Visa and Mastercard charge businesses an estimated $5 billion through hidden fees. These fees range from 1.5 per cent to 3 per cent on each purchase, which is almost twice the fee charged to Europeans, New Zealanders, and Australians. In contrast, Interact charges a flat fee of approximately 12 cents, regardless of the value of the purchase.
For example, a three percent hidden credit card fee on a $500 iPad is $15. But if you use a debit card instead, the fee is only 12 cents. You can probably guess where the money to pay these extra fees comes from.
Because credit card companies use their market power to prevent businesses from charging fees on transactions made with Visa or Mastercards, merchants have little choice but to embed those cost in the prices of goods sold to all customers. The real impact of hidden credit card fees is that everyone pays higher prices, regardless of how they pay.
The Liberal Party has been calling for tougher rules for years, but Minister Flaherty has not only been ignoring this problem, he has worsened the situation. He has allowed card issuers (the banks) to offer both Visa and Mastercard, rather than one or the other. This has created a perverse situation whereby these companies now compete to offer higher fees to banks, with the extra costs once again being passed off to small businesses and their customers.
Things are getting even worse, with Visa set to introduce “ultra-premium” cards with even higher fees next year. It is long past time that the Conservative government take action against the anti-competitive practices of credit card companies. It wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime and would save small businesses and consumers billions.
Yours sincerely,
Joyce Murray, MP
Liberal Party of Canada Critic for Small Business; 613-992-2430
——————————————————
Rosie DiManno — racist smoker?
Hello,
I am writing you to report a very disturbing news. Once again, we Filipinos have been stereotyped as nannies. Rosie DiManno in her passionate editorial about the anti-smoking ban wrote, “The no-smoking diktat around city playgrounds and children’s splash pads from 2009 just made me roll my eyes. I guess this might have affected the Filipino nannies minding your kids”
The problem with this statement are plenty. But mostly:
1. This is sad stereotype. It is because of stereotypes like this limits many people – women are not given leadership roles (and income gap is wide between men and women), younger workers unable to take leadership position despite of their knowledge and credentials, children are bullied based on ethnic group and of course, discrimination against people of colour including Filipinos.
2. This implies that parents don’t take care of their kids
I encourage you to watch what I made here: http://youtu.be/bXt2nGBhtzs
And sign the petition to remove Rosie DiManno from Toronto Star:
Please spread the word to your constituents and ask them to pass the information on to their friends and families. These type of stereotypes are not accepted in Toronto and any newspaper: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ask-For-Resignation-of-Rosie-DiManno-A-Racist-Smoker/461223073930325
All The Best,
Jorge Lee, Toronto
Comments (1)