Mr. Chairman and members, it is my turn to thank you for inviting us to present our comments and recommendations regarding the government assistance to the Canadian financial sector, particularly with respect to access to credit for individuals, the protection of savings and the stability of the Canadian financial system.
This is not the first time that we have appeared before this committee, and I will bet that this will not be the last time either. For those of you who are not familiar with our group, Option consommateurs is a non-profit organization headquartered in Montreal, but we also have an office in Ottawa, run by Ms. Anu Bose, who is here with me this morning. Our mission is to promote and defend the interests of consumers. Established in 1983, Option consommateurs closely follows issues pertaining to energy, agrifood, financial services and business practices.
The recession has hit the country's job market head on. According to Statistics Canada, some 129,000 people lost their jobs in January, including 30,000 in Quebec. At the same time, we are seeing a sharp increase in the number of insolvencies. No fewer than 90,000 consumers declared bankruptcy in Canada in 2008, compared to nearly 80,000 one year earlier, which represents an increase of 13.5%. These are individuals who in all likelihood will not be able to participate in the economic recovery.
In order to deal with this economic upheaval and the worsening international credit, the Government of Canada implemented the Extraordinary Financing Framework in order to enable Canadian financial institutions to continue providing access to financing to both consumers and businesses. This framework contains numerous support measures for both private and public institutions, and it would appear that Canadians have no say in the way it is being implemented, something that is essential to the democracy of this country and the confidence of consumers.
Moreover, the comments made by various keynote speakers invited to attend an international seminar that we organized on March 12 and 13, which focused on consumer credit and debt, are rather worrisome, if not downright alarming. Perhaps I am not telling you anything new when I say that, over the past 25 years, consumer debt in Canada has more than doubled, going from 15.7% of disposable personal income in 1981 to 36.2% in 2007. Not only has the amount of debt in households risen, but savings fell beneath the zero mark in 2005. According to Statistics Canada, savings were sitting at minus 0.5% in the second quarter of 2005, something not seen since the 1920s.
As far as access to credit for individuals is concerned, we now see that we have two categories of consumers: for one group, access to credit has been too easy and has quickly led to too much debt, and in the other group, access to this credit has systematically been turned down. In both cases, it is very difficult for us to know what criteria have been used by the financial institutions in their decisions to grant credit.
These observations on the government's financial assistance programs for the Canadian financial sector and on the state of finances of individuals enable us to make three recommendations. I will let Ms. Bose present these recommendations to you. We would then be pleased to answer your questions.