Mr. Chair, I would like to praise the member for Vancouver East for her work on poverty issues and housing issues. She has been a fearless advocate for these issues. She has brought to the House an important perspective and once again is raising important issues here in the House which we hope will echo in all four corners of the House.
The reality is that she is absolutely right. We need to take action. I mentioned the consumers' bill of rights, regulating credit card interest rates to five points above the prime lending rate as opposed to that 10 point to 20 point gap that many credit cards have.
The difference for somebody who has a credit card debt of just under $1,000 is the difference between having to pay just as much as the principal in interest payments. If someone is making the minimum payment per month, it will take up to 10 years to pay down that $1,000 balance, as opposed to somebody with a lower interest charge who would be able to actually pay much less in interest and, even with paying a minimum each month, would pay off that debt three years sooner.
Those issues are important ones, both for regulating that interest rate and also, as I mentioned, the Senate bill regulating the usury rate in the Criminal Code.