Mr. Speaker, if I can add clarification to what the two members have just said, first, I understand it is the intention in the bill that provincial jurisdiction will be given. In other words, the in the case of Quebec, it will continue. In the case of other provinces, they regulate this industry on behalf of their own residents. I think there should be no objection from the members of the Bloc on this issue.
Second, I think it is fair to say that these people, instead of having a bank account, will go to one of these short term financial institutions and they will be willing to pay $10 if they can get their short term loan and pay it back.
I happened to just do the math because I had not done it before. If we pay a $10 charge on a $200 loan for 30 days and if we call it interest, it works out very close to 60%. The question is this. Is it really fair to call that interest? As in all cases, there is an administrative component to this that must be covered. If these firms were not permitted to charge that $10 fee, then they would be unable to provide the service and those who want that service would then be deprived of it.
The objective of the bill is to allow those firms to conduct their business on behalf of those who demand that service.