Innovative payment cards will provide consumers with enhanced security
    and greater convenience

    TORONTO, May 23 /CNW/ - Canadian Tire announced today that it will
participate in an industry-wide pilot program to test market-readiness for the
introduction of chip cards in Canada by 2010.
    The pilot will be launched in March of 2008 at the five Canadian Tire
stores in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, leading the way for all 468 Canadian
Tire stores across Canada to accept chip cards later in the year. Canadian
Tire will be one of the first and largest retailers to participate in the
pilot. The pilot will test the cards, as well as the chip-reading terminals
("readers") and the network required for processing chip card transactions.
    "Chip card technology is really the next wave in providing our customers
with enhanced payment security when they shop at Canadian Tire," said Marco
Marrone, President, Canadian Tire Financial Services. "While we continue to
invest in the integrity of the current system, we're setting up software,
point-of-sale systems and retail processes that will test and deliver this
innovative new service to Canadians."
    Canadian Tire Bank will also be participating in the pilot by issuing
chip cards to its Options MasterCard cardholders in the Kitchener-Waterloo
area in time for the start of the March 2008 pilot. Canadian Tire Options
MasterCards will continue to carry magnetic stripes in order to be compatible
with non-chip payment sites and locations.
    Card issuers will embed the new micro-computer chip into existing payment
cards when they issue them in the pilot area. The chip securely stores
encrypted confidential information such as a cardholder's account number and
Personal Identification Number (PIN). The technology works by having customers
verify a transaction by keying in a four-digit PIN number, rather than signing
a receipt. Chip card transactions are quicker and more secure because much of
the information the reader needs is stored directly on the card, rather than
being retrieved over the network from the cardholder's financial institution.
If reported stolen or lost, chip cards cannot be used because they require a
PIN.

    Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited (TSX: CTC, CTC.a), operates more than
1,100 general merchandise and apparel retail stores, gas stations and car
washes in an inter-related network of businesses engaged in retail, financial
services and petroleum. Canadian Tire Retail, Canada's most shopped general
merchandise retailer, with 468 stores operated by Associate Dealers across
Canada offers a unique mix of products and services through three specialty
categories in which the organization is the market leader - Automotive, Sports
and Leisure, and Home Products. www.canadiantire.ca offers Canadians the
opportunity to shop online. PartSource is an automotive parts specialty chain
with 64 stores designed to meet the needs of purchasers of automotive parts -
professional automotive installers and serious do-it-yourselfers. Canadian
Tire Petroleum is one of the country's largest and most productive independent
retailers of gasoline, operating 265 gas bars, 256 convenience stores and
kiosks, and 75 car washes. Mark's Work Wearhouse is one of the country's
leading apparel retailers operating 340 stores in Canada. Under the Clothes
that Work™ marketing strategy, Mark's sells apparel and footwear in work,
work-related, casual and active-wear categories, as well as health-care and
business-to-business apparel. www.marks.com offers Canadians the opportunity
to shop online. Canadian Tire Financial Services manages over 4 million
Canadian Tire MasterCard accounts and markets related financial products and
services for retail and petroleum customers. Canadians can also access
Financial Services online at www.ctfs.com. Over 50,000 Canadians work across
Canadian Tire's organization from coast-to-coast in the enterprise's retail,
financial services, and petroleum businesses.