Finance Committee on Feb. 25th, 2008

[Ursula Menke]

Approximately.

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Do these amounts seem adequate to you if you are to fulfil your mandate insofar as information is concerned?

[Ursula Menke]

For the moment, we must remember that we are really a relatively small organization. Therefore, we have a limited capacity to spend money without spending badly. We are therefore very happy with the money we currently have, and we are in a position to spend it well. We are very happy with what we have.

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Do you believe it would be an interesting idea if the fines you impose on an institution when they are in breach of a regulation be paid to you rather than the Receiver General of Canada, or not?

[Ursula Menke]

In actual fact, the fines—and I do not have the specific figures in front of me—would not make a very big difference. The fines are not what is important, it is rather the possibility of increasing our budget by $1.5 million per year in order to be able to put more emphasis on educational activities.

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

If you refer to the survey that you carried out and that I was talking about earlier, are you satisfied overall with the level of knowledge and with customer satisfaction? Do you have specific objectives for the next year or following years in this regard? Do you need additional funding in order to meet them?

[Ursula Menke]

We have not established specific objectives. In fact, I was saying earlier that it is difficult to establish very specific and very measurable objectives in terms of education, in general. Therefore, we have not done that.

Would I like to obtain additional funding in the years to come? Yes.

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Do you believe that young clients should be targeted? For example, let's say I have children who are 17, 22 and 24, and they are given better information so that they will have a better understanding of these issues. They would have that knowledge for life, because 80% of that information would not change. Would such a program be relevant in your opinion?

[Ursula Menke]

In fact, that is exactly the initiative that we are taking currently with British Columbia, that is indeed intended to reach 15, 16 and 17-year-olds. We do believe, like you, that learning at that age has life-long value.

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Would you like to see that program extended across the country, and have you done any cost estimates as to what that might represent?

[Ursula Menke]

There are major challenges. In British Columbia, schools must offer this type of course, where that is not necessarily the case across the country. As you know, this is a strictly provincial issue. That is why I was speaking earlier on about partners in order to better promote this type of initiative. I try to promote a recognition across the country of the importance of financial education.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you.

I have a couple of questions that are a follow-up from what I heard around the committee.

With regard to your complaints, which I believe Mr. Pacetti was referring to on pages 20 and 21, I believe you told the committee it was outside your mandate to deal with them. What do you do with those complaints when they come to your office?

[Ursula Menke]

We send those off to the ombuds services. When people come in to complain, in any case, regardless of the complaint for which they're seeking redress, we can't deal with redress for them because we're an enforcement agency. We give everyone who calls with a complaint the appropriate contact information so the ombudsman can deal with the actual redress component.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Okay, so you refer them to another agency, but you don't take that complaint and move the complaint anywhere?

[Ursula Menke]

No, we can't. If the complaint is a compliance matter, then we will look at it. But if it is not a compliance matter, then it is out of the jurisdiction of the agency to do anything about it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you very much.

I want to thank you for coming to the committee. We appreciate the time we've been able to spend together, and I appreciate the questions of the committee.

The meeting is adjourned.