Federal government reaches agreement to cut credit card fees for business owners
Federal government reaches agreement to cut credit card fees for business owners
A Winnipeg business owner facing the pressure of high credit card fees is praising a federal move to lower them.
Along with the Federal Budget 2023 announcement Tuesday, the federal government announced it had come to an agreement with MasterCard and Visa to reduce credit card fees by as much as 27 per cent for small business owners.
Kari England, the owner of Toad Hall Toys, said the announcement to lower fees has been a long time coming.
"It's been on the radar for a really long time,” England said. "It's over $5,000 a year just in these little percentage fees. But then as I say that, there's also renting of machines."
On top of her usual fee to have credit cards, England said there are extra charges if the card has a chip, is a rewards card, or if she needs to enter the card number by hand. She estimates she spends $10,000 a year to accept credit cards in her store.
England said she is glad to have the payment option, but how they take credit cards has changed since her parents opened the shop almost 50 years ago.
"We used to have one of the ‘chink-kah-chink’ machines and everybody has their card. And then we had to hand enter them.”
She said the quicker payment is a trade off, but the fees are too high. She is glad to see the feds take the step to negotiate smaller fees.
''Unfortunately as of now we don't have any of the details of that agreement," said Jasmin Guénette, vice president of national affairs at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
She said it is something the federation is hoping to see that in the weeks to come.
"If you're a small business that has a lot of credit card fees, if you are in retail if you're a restaurant owner, these are things that you recognize that are an increased cost pressure that you've had to deal with,” Manitoba Chambers of Commerce President and CEO Chuck Davidson said.
He says any help for businesses is welcome after recent pandemic and economic pressures.
"These additional costs on business is something they've had to deal with. So something that's going to put more money back into their pocket is something that's a good thing."
Davidson said he is still waiting for the federal government to announce details on how the cuts will work.
Canada's jobless rate ticked higher to 5.2 per cent in May, marking the first increase since August 2022 as economists have been watching for any sign of a softening labour market.
The father of Tori Stafford, an Ontario girl who was murdered in 2009, says the latest decision to transfer convicted killer Paul Bernardo to a minimum security prison is a 'slap in the face' to all murder victims' families.
Donald Trump said Thursday that he was indicted for mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, a remarkable development that makes him the first former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges by the federal government that he once oversaw.
A little white pill has given Syrian President Bashar Assad powerful leverage with his Arab neighbours, who have been willing to bring him out of pariah status in hopes he will stop the flow of highly addictive Captagon amphetamines out of Syria.
Smoke and flames continue to engulf much of Canada, with Alberta imposing new evacuation orders, Manitoba bracing for heavy, lightning-generating thunderstorms and high wildfire risks and poor air quality from coast to coast.
'Kids are being massacred in their schools, literally … their heads are being decapitated because of the power of an assault bullet, (which) is unlike anything, no other weapon,' says gun violence prevention activist Samuel Schwartz, who is among the organizers of a sit-in demanding change on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
Canada's jobless rate ticked higher to 5.2 per cent in May, marking the first increase since August 2022 as economists have been watching for any sign of a softening labour market.
A man who killed his ex-wife’s cousin will spend life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years, a judge decided on Thursday at Saskatoon’s Court of King’s Bench.
Canada's jobless rate ticked higher to 5.2 per cent in May, marking the first increase since August 2022 as economists have been watching for any sign of a softening labour market.
Thousands of Canadians have had to leave their homes in several provinces over the last few weeks due to forest fires. Luckily, there are steps you can take to protect your property, both prior to an evacuation and during.
Court records show defrocked Oblate priest Eric Dejaeger is facing six charges of indecent assault and two charges of sexual assault for crimes he allegedly committed in Nunavut between 1978 and 1982.
Video has surfaced showing a Mississauga, Ont. transit bus plowing into stopped traffic in a crash that left one person dead and at least eight injured on Thursday morning.
Quebec's precarious wildfire situation is expected to remain stable over the next 48 hours but residents displaced by the raging forest fires likely won't be able to return home until early next week, Premier Francois Legault said Thursday.
An Ontario man charged Wednesday with first-degree murder in the death of Claudia Iacono, the daughter-in-law of the late Montreal Mafia associate Moreno Gallo, was arrested the day after the killing in Ontario on unrelated drug charges, public records show.
Lyme disease in Quebec was back on the rise in 2021, following a brief slowdown in 2020. Of the 650 cases of Lyme disease acquired in Quebec, Estrie was again the most affected region. With 452 cases, it accounts for nearly 70 per cent of all infections in the province.
Anthaea-Grace Patricia Dennis is not your typical 12-year-old. She is a child prodigy who's about to become the youngest Canadian to ever graduate from university.
Canada's jobless rate ticked higher to 5.2 per cent in May, marking the first increase since August 2022 as economists have been watching for any sign of a softening labour market.
The Halifax Regional Municipality says it will announce Thursday when more residents can return to their homes in communities impacted by the Tantallon wildfires.
New Brunswick students under the age of 16 who identify as trans and non-binary won't be able to officially change their names or pronouns in school without parental consent.
Scoring the opening goal of game three of the Stanley Cup finals wasn’t the only celebration Florida Panthers defenceman Brandon Montour was a part of this week.
University of Guelph (U of G) researchers have been looking at ways to breed dairy cows that burp out less methane, a harmful greenhouse gas emission contributing to climate change.
Tumbler Ridge, a community with a population of 2,400 in northeastern B.C., has been ordered to evacuate Thursday due to the danger posed by an encroaching wildfire.
A day after the NDP government presented its 30-point plan to address the crisis at Surrey Memorial Hospital, the official Opposition is pledging to build a tower, while acknowledging their role in the situation.
The mayor of Port Alberni says she does not expect the highway to reopen for several days at least, and she is asking the province to open more forestry roads to truck in much-needed supplies to communities west of the wildfire.
