Madam Speaker, we know that the existing methods of regulating, or not regulating, credit card companies is just not working.
The parliamentary secretary today in the House of Commons talked about some of the measures that the Conservative government is putting in its budget. What does it actually do? It tells us how we are being ripped off. It tells us that if we want a credit card, we can put in some numbers and it will tell us which credit card we can use, but all of them charge huge interest rates.
The existing disclosure methodology really does not work. The key thing is regulations, which is why we are looking at the model that New Democrats are putting forward. Yes, it was introduced in the United States Senate. What we must do is take all the studies that have been done since 1990, cap the interest rate, and amend the Bank Act.
Just making it voluntary and having some lunches with bank presidents will not work. It did not work for the ATM fees; it will not work for credit card fees either.