Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, colleagues.
I appreciate the chance to be a part of this conversation; it's a very important one.
I want to start by thanking ACORN and Prosper Canada for your advocacy this afternoon. This particularly applies to ACORN, not only for your advocacy here in Ottawa but in my community also. The chapter in the Waterloo region has been a wonderful ally for folks who are facing renovictions. Thank you again to the good folks at ACORN for how you're bringing your lived experience to some really important advocacy, both in the Waterloo region and of course here this afternoon.
Ms. Borden, thanks for sharing some of your lived experience. It reflects what many in my community have shared with me in terms of the debt trap. I appreciate the story you shared in terms of borrowing $10,000. I think you shared that you paid back $24,000 and still owed $7,000 by the end. It speaks to the real injustice of the issue that is meant to be addressed by this change. To reduce these predatory interest rates down to 35% is certainly a step in the right direction.
My question is for Ms. Jhamb. Specifically with respect to the association representing lenders who started this letter-writing campaign, my office has received two of these letters. I know that ACORN and Momentum have put out a statement that refutes the myths shared in these emails, including by pointing out that in Quebec this 35% maximum interest rate has already been in place for years, yet the industry seems to still expand in that province. I know that ACORN is pushing to reduce the maximum rate even further.
Ms. Jhamb, can you summarize in a minute or so the myths that ACORN has dispelled to help folks make sense of some of the emails we're receiving?