Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will continue with you, Superintendent, because you spoke earlier about examples from abroad. You talked about what is happening in Australia.
There’s another country that interests me a great deal, and that is Quebec, where legislative changes are still ongoing and will soon be implemented. Under these changes, the Consumer Protection Act will impose a duty of assessment on banks and financial services co‑operatives. When a person signs a new credit contract, the bank produces a report on the financial capacity to repay it. It includes fixed charges for people applying for credit, rent and so on, as well as all the interest and payments on existing loans.
When it comes to what we call high-cost credit contracts, or when dealing with alternative lenders, the lender must provide this report to the person making the request. That’s the case in Quebec. It seems to me that this legislative change must have been made in response to a real problem with the quality of the information provided to credit applicants when they sign a contract.
How is it that the federal government still doesn’t have a policy like this? In your opinion, when it comes to consumer protection—particularly when it comes to credit contracts—how is it that Quebec is always one step ahead? Finally, do you think that such a policy over in Quebec is likely to mean that fewer personal insolvency cases will end up on your desk?