No, not the Liberal Party of Canada. He has moved from the Liberal Party of Canada to the head of the Canadian Payday Loan Association. I do not know what the connection is but maybe this explains why, after years of complaining to the Liberal government that these rip-offs were running roughshod over the law and exploiting the people I represent, it chose to do absolutely nothing year after year.
I went directly to ministers of industry on this very issue looking for satisfaction on this. In fact, I pigeonholed one minister in Manitoba when she was visiting my province. We had our minister of consumer and corporate affairs and we had the federal minister of industry there. I told them both that it was an emergency, a crisis, and that they had to do something. That was years ago, probably 2002 or 2003, and nothing was done.
The Province of Manitoba has been trying to pass its own legislation to stop these guys but it does not have the jurisdiction to do so. It is a federal matter. Now we have the federal government at least paying deference to the extent of the problem and introducing legislation that hopefully we can segue into some satisfaction for the people I represent, although it will still be up to individual provinces to say how tough each one chooses to get.
However, I am here to say that the payday loan industry is out of control. They are a bunch of crooks. They are a bunch of gangsters painted up as honourable citizens but there is nothing honourable about their industry. They are cheats and they are cheating Canadians as we speak.
The sheer number of them shows us how profitable this is, but, as I said in my opening remarks, where else can people get 1,000% interest? Where else can people get that rate of return? No one can make that kind of investment. I do not think that much money is made selling coke, and I mean cocaine not Coca-Cola. I do not think anyone makes that much money dealing dope. It is irresistible. I do not think anyone can make that much money in prostitution or any of the other traditional rackets. This is a racket to end all rackets and we are actually accommodating them and finding a way to make it legal.
I am surprised the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is not investing in payday loans. They do not have any ethical investment standards whatsoever. They have no ethical screen. In fact, I think we could argue that the Canada pension plan is obligated to invest in the payday loan industry because its very founding trust document says that the only consideration shall be the maximum rate of return. There are no ethical standards: child labour, polluting the St. Clair River, it does not matter. Our pension plan has to invest in them.
I understand I am running short of time, but I raise that as an aside. I do not want our Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to invest in payday loans. I want to stamp payday loan companies out of existence. They should be squashed like a grape under the heel of Parliament for the offence that they have committed against the Canadian people. They do not deserve to breathe the same air as the good people of Winnipeg Centre. They do not deserve to occupy store space. They do not deserve to put up billboards and buy advertising space. They should be run out of business. They should be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. That would be the only suitable way to treat the payday loan industry.