Finance Committee on March 13th, 2012

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Mr. Phillips did want to address your point on what he has concerns about in Bill S-5.

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

Yes, and I have a question about Bill S-5 for Monsieur Vinet as well, Chair.

[David Phillips]

But I am here to talk about Bill S-5 and I made three points—

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

Which clause would you like to address, Mr. Phillips?

[David Phillips]

I discussed the CPA membership class. I discussed the technology powers. We have qualms about the section 427.... I discussed—

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

Forgive me. I agree. You have.

[David Phillips]

—the extension of the charter, so I spoke directly to Bill S-5.

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

Forgive me. I agree. You have, absolutely.

Monsieur Vinet, I'd like you to speak directly to Bill S-5.

Draft section 219 is aimed at consumers and calls for consumer protection regulations. The fine would increase from $200,000 to $500,000.

Do you think this will help to protect consumers? In what way does this help protect them? Will the increase have a beneficial effect?

[Jean-François Vinet]

That is a very good observation.

In fact, we are not here to attack every aspect of Bill S-5. We are not here to review the entire bill. We have five minutes, and then we have one-minute discussion periods.

We have focused on that one aspect which, in our opinion, is the most important one. It regards—

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

I heard you, but I wanted to know—

[Jean-François Vinet]

It may not be important to you, or not a priority, but that is not the case for our organization which, for 25 years, has been working on behalf of consumers. This is a huge priority. In our opinion, this should have been—

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

We heard you, Mr. Vinet.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Unfortunately—

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

We have run out of time and you did not answer.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Unfortunately, we are out of time on that.

[Jean-François Vinet]

Can somebody ask me a question?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

I'm sorry. We are out of time, but I'm sure—

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

I just did. You didn't answer it—

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Mr. Thibeault may come back to that.

We'll go to Mr. Thibeault, please.

Sorry, Mr. Mai. Go ahead.

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

First, I would like to thank our witnesses for being here today.

We believe that, with Bill S-5, the government has imposed too many limits. This is a five-year review. The government has not engaged in a review which would protect consumers against fees, or protect the superintendent and cooperatives. We do not think that the government has done its job.

The government sent the bill to the Senate. If I remember correctly, the Senate received 30 briefs. It then proposed a technical review only, when in fact that would have been a time to find solutions. I think that what you are saying today is very important. It is important to study every aspect of the bill. Mr. Phillips actually said a few words about that, and Mr. Giguère will also ask you some questions on that matter.

I personally would like to focus on issues which affect consumers, who have been forgotten in the bill. Section 219 offers some protection, but it is not enough.

My question is about banking fees. Can you talk a little more about banking fees and credit card interest rates? What are the problems? Were they addressed in the bill? By the way, I don't think so. What problems are associated with credit cards and banking fees?

Mr. Sommers, you can answer all of these questions.

[Tyler Sommers]

Essentially what we're looking at is a 5.3% increase in profit over the last year while they have been increasing interest rates and cutting loans and services.

What we need and what we're asking for is to ensure that this is fair. It's nothing out of the ordinary. We're just asking for audits and competition investigations to ensure that the cutting of services, the cutting of staff, and the increased profits are not done at a cost to consumers.

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Vinet, do you wish to say anything further about, for example, the Office of Superintendent, or banking fees? Have consumers filed any complaints or expressed any concerns about the way the banks are acting?

[Jean-François Vinet]

If you want to talk about credit, you are opening the door very wide to one of the main concerns that our organization has been focusing on for 25 years. I am going to focus on two main issues. First of all, credit card interest rates are clearly too high, particularly when you consider that the prime lending rate has never been so low. Financial institutions are loaning to the most vulnerable in society, who probably only have access to credit cards, and not to lines of credit at low rates. They are given loans with interest rates of 20%, even 30% in the case of large stores. If this were about lowering the government's criminal interest rate, which is currently standing at 60%, there certainly would be work to do. Moreover, unfortunately these are the people—

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Vinet, before I give the floor to someone else, I would like to know whether or not you were informed and whether you participated in the Senate consultations.