Good morning.
Thank you for having us.
I'm sorry, but our opening statement today will be in English. However, we will be able to answer your questions in French.
You know who we are, but I'll tell you quickly about our organization, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. We're an advocacy group that for decades has fought for better outcomes for consumers and in particular the underdogs in sectors like telecom, energy, transportation and banking.
I take it that this committee received good notice and evidence in your work as parliamentarians about the cost of living and affordability crises that Canadians are in the midst of. When everything gets more expensive and wages don't keep up, debt is one of the drugs that many turn to, and it becomes a vicious never-ending cycle. Credit card debt and credit-card-like debt are the quick hits but have long-lasting consequences.
Earlier this year, a report from the Ivey Business School said that the three pillars of well-being are mental health, physical health and financial well-being. It's good that this committee is looking at a small piece of financial well-being because debt is crushing Canadians. The amount of household debt is getting close to our annual GDP. While this debt problem seems to cut across many demographics, we're concerned that this is a serious problem for gen Z and Canadians who are more prone, historically, to discrimination. Again, it's good to see this committee taking a serious look at credit cards, and I would like you to focus today on three particular issues.
Our first main point is that credit card consumer protection is a tangled web across the country, and it's not clear—to us, anyway—whether that regime is doing anything to make it better for consumers. While credit cards issued by federally regulated banks are operated under federal regulations—like the financial consumer protection framework, which lives within the Bank Act—credit cards and credit issued by non-federally regulated banks don't afford consumers the same level of protection and rights across the country, as they're subject to various provincial consumer protection acts of varying quality.
We strongly believe there should be a one-stop shop for Canadians when it comes to issues with credit cards or credit-related products, leveraging best practices from the provinces that have found better ways to protect consumers. A good example here is Quebec, where there's a debt-level test for people taking on new debt and there are enhanced disclosure requirements. We think the federal government plays an important role in bringing those standards together and in harmonizing them at the best level.