Good afternoon.
My name is Alexandre Plourde, and I am a lawyer and analyst with Option consommateurs.
I am accompanied by my colleague Sylvie De Bellefeuille, lawyer and budget advisor.
Thank you for this opportunity to present our observations. Option consommateurs is an association whose mission is to help consumers and defend their rights. In the course of our activities, we work with consumers experiencing financial difficulties and debt problems.
Consequently, it goes without saying that the inflationary crisis Canada is experiencing is a major concern for us. Whether it's housing, energy or food, inflation affects basic goods and services that consumers cannot do without. To live, consumers must pay rent, use electricity and buy groceries. These are not luxury items but rather essential needs that consumers cannot disregard or postpone.
Consequently, inflation is particularly problematic for low-income consumers, who have far less budget flexibility to absorb cuts to their purchasing power.
For these consumers, significant price increases therefore mean tough budget choices. Food, for example, is one of the only compressible expenses for most low-income households. As a result, consumers have no choice but to deprive themselves of adequate food in order to pay other expense items. We also see rising numbers of households, increasingly including workers, turning to food banks to meet their needs.
We are of course fully aware that inflation is a complex economic problem that will not go away, as in a fairy tale, with a wave of a magic wand. Despite all efforts by governments to juggle rising prices, we expect consumers will have to deal with declining purchasing power for years. Today, however, we propose four measures that we feel could mitigate inflation's effects on consumers and help them cope with rising prices.
The first measure we propose is obviously that the government provide more support for the most vulnerable consumers. Since low-income individuals may be the hardest hit by inflation, we propose a substantial increase in several government benefits, particularly the GST/HST credit, the Canada child benefit and the guaranteed income supplement. We believe that improving these programs would help mitigate the inflationary shock to the consumers struggling most to make ends meet.
The second measure we propose is that the government ensure that markets are competitive. It is more important than ever that businesses compete so Canadians can get the best price.
Unfortunately, telecommunications, a particularly important sector for consumers, poses a problem in this regard. Canada is still one of the countries with the highest prices for telecommunications services. We believe this situation is attributable to a lack of competition among telecommunications service providers.
To promote greater competition in this market and to exercise downward pressure on prices, we propose that the government compel the major telecommunications companies to share their Internet and mobile network infrastructure with smaller suppliers at low rates.
The third measure we propose is that the government legislate greater transparency for consumer prices. Inflation has encouraged certain merchants to engage in "reduflation", a practice that consists in subtly reducing product quantities while maintaining prices so as to conceal price increases.
In an inflationary context, we feel these practices must be more effectively regulated so consumers can get the information they need to adjust their purchasing behaviour to price increases. Although Canadian regulations require manufacturers to state quantities on their products, we believe the act should go further and ensure that consumers are clearly advised when manufacturers reduce product quantities.
The fourth and final measure we propose is that the government ensure that the consumer goods Canadians buy have an adequate lifespan. Given the sharp increase in prices of appliances and other devices, Canadian legislation should promote the repairability of those consumer goods at an affordable price. To do this, we propose, for example, that the practice of planned obsolescence be prohibited, that a requirement that replacement parts and repair services be available be incorporated in the act and that Canada's Copyright Act be amended to remove intellectual property barriers to the repairing of devices.
Apart from the obvious environmental interest in reducing the replacement cycle of consumer goods, the increased lifespan of goods and devices would free consumers from having to purchase new goods and thus help them deal with price increases.
Thank you for listening to us. We will be pleased to answer your questions.
Thank you for listening to us. We will be pleased to answer your questions.