Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.
This motion is in response, first of all, to the rapid growth of payday lenders in all of our communities, and the commensurate lack of regulations to help control this area in terms of consumer protections. A number of attempts have been ongoing at the federal-provincial level to try to find a way to solve this and to provide some sort of regulatory framework. They haven't produced much fruit to date, so a number of provinces have started to review this area on their own, and one of them is Manitoba. It has proposed legislation to control issues around rollover loans, with a definition of payday loans, cooling-off periods, and so on, and to do it through an established agency—in this case, the Manitoba Public Utilities Board.
But in order for a province like Manitoba to proceed, it needs a change to the Criminal Code that sets aside section 347 of the code. Provinces like Manitoba, with legislation ready to roll and a plan for regulating the industry, and who have actually requested an exemption from the Criminal Code on payday loans, do require commensurate action at the federal level.
So all I'm asking is that we send a motion to the House asking the Minister of Justice to amend the Criminal Code at an early date to make this possible for provinces like Manitoba and indeed for others that are starting to follow, like British Columbia.