Thank you, Chair Carr.
My office has already issued a warning to the community about the prevalence of these types of scams. We see them happening on a quasi-daily basis. It's my understanding that police departments are overloaded with these.
I think we have an important role, both in raising awareness and in trying to find proactive ways.... A whole range of businesses and organizations can help to prevent these types of scams. Beyond the statistics, which are shocking, these have real impacts on people's daily lives in communities. This is wiping out people's retirement savings.
Also, it's not just about older people. I received a phone call one day in the middle of doing a whole bunch of things. A couple of minutes in, I realized what was going on and hung up, but it could have been anybody. We need all of the generations to be aware, so that they're talking to their parents, talking to one another and being proactive in preventing these types of scams.
To Mr. Ste-Marie's very good point, I think bullet one has a broad enough range of businesses and business types to make it not exclusively the jurisdiction of the finance committee. Ms. Dancho is talking about “banks, telecommunication companies and digital platforms”. Bullet three talks about “law enforcement capacity”, which is really critical.
I'll be happy to support this.
Again, this is what we're here for in committee: non-partisan, constructive work that's going to benefit Canadians.
Thank you very much for bringing the motion forward.