Mr. Speaker, coming from the province of Manitoba, we are anxiously awaiting Bill C-26 to pass. We see it as the enabling legislation so we can start to rein in this burgeoning industry, the payday lenders that are sprouting up like mushrooms in the inner city riding that I represent. They are an absolute scourge on the poor.
It is not any wonder that they are burgeoning and popping up in virtually every vacancy and every strip mall one can imagine. They are not just charging 60%, or 100%, or 1000% interest, some are charging 10,000% interest, according to independent studies done by the University of Winnipeg. Even the old leg-breaking loan sharks could not make money like that. There is no single thing one could do in the country to make 10,000% interest. I am told that selling cocaine does not get one 10,000% interest.
We are anxiously awaiting the implementation of the bill.
However, why were they not prosecuting these people all along? Why did successive governments ignore the fact that these guys were charging usurious rates, clearly against the Criminal Code of Canada and clearly undermining the financial stability of the inner city of Winnipeg and other cities. What possible reason could they have for not busting these guys? Why were these underworld figures, who run these payday lending outfits, not locked up before we had to even take this measure to provide a regulatory framework?