Finance committee  Mr. Chairman and honourable members, on behalf of the Direct Sellers Association of Canada, I want to thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee today. Since 1954, the Direct Sellers Association has established and upheld rigorous standards, ethics, and good business practices as the recognized voice of our industry.

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman and honourable members, on behalf of the 45-member companies of the Direct Sellers Association and our 600,000 independent sales contractors across the country, I want to thank you for the opportunity to participate in this consultation. Our independent businesspeople represent such well-known names as Avon, Mary Kay, Shaklee, NuSkin, and Quixtar, whose retail sales in 2007 approached $2 billion.

Finance committee  Yes, that's partially the reason. The direct selling companies pre-collect the GST at the time of the sale to the independent direct seller. The direct selling companies then remit the tax to the federal government on behalf of those they collected it from.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, honourable members, on behalf of the fifty member companies of the Direct Sellers Association and 600,000 independent sales contractors or direct sellers across Canada, I want to thank you for the opportunity to participate in this consultation.

Finance committee  I think it certainly enables the family to make their own choices in terms of where they're going to use that credit. I think it also takes a lot of the strain off the day care facilities as well, with that number of women who are working from home. They're able to spend portions of their day at home with their children, as opposed to having them in day care.

Finance committee  Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, honourable members, on behalf of the 47 member companies of the Direct Sellers Association and 1.3 million independent sales contractors, we want to thank you for the opportunity to participate in this consultation. The direct selling companies and the independent sales contractors market a wide variety of products and services directly to the consumer, usually in the consumer's home rather than in traditional retail establishments.