“We have been asking for the Department of Finance to ensure independent, fair and expeditious resolution of consumer banking complaints by creating a single ombudsman service for over ten years,” said John Lawford, PIAC Executive Director and General Counsel. “We almost gave up hope, but in the Finance Minister’s Mandate Letter, it directed the Minister to create ‘a single, independent ombudsperson, with the power to impose binding arbitration, to address consumer complaints involving banks.’ So, we are requesting the Minister go ahead and right this historical consumer problem.”

PIAC recently recorded an episode of its “We Fight for That” podcast discussing consumer banking complaints in Canada in detail.

For more information, please contact:

Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC)

John Lawford
Executive Director and General Counsel
Public Interest Advocacy Centre
(613) 447-8125
jlawford@piac.ca

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The campaign and coalition formed around chronic issues of abusive lending and poor access to fair and safe credit but was catalyzed by the Government of Canada’s Budget 2021, which promised federal government review of the criminal rate of interest, payday lending and installment lending in Canada.

The campaign has four major recommendations for advancing credit justice for lower-income Canadians:

1. Lower the maximum interest rate to an Effective Annual Rate (EAR) of 36%. Ensure that the maximum rate includes all lending costs.
2. Clarify and better enable enforcement. Remove the requirement of an actuarial certificate and approval of the attorney general to prosecute.
3. Repeal section 347.1 which provides an exemption for payday lending.
4. Ensure access to safe and affordable credit for all Canadians.

The campaign not only seeks to eliminate extreme credit costs to those Canada who can least afford to pay high interest rates, but also to create a new credit facility for lower-income Canadians and to provide a government-backed bridge to consumers who may have become dependent on harmful forms of credit such as payday loans and installment loans.

A full description of our recommendations is found in the attached document: “Revising the Criminal Rate of Interest in Canada” (December 2021).

For more information, or to add your group to the coalition, please contact:

John Lawford (he/him)
Executive Director/General Counsel
Public Interest Advocacy Centre
285 McLeod Street - Suite 200
Ottawa, ON  K2P 1A1
jlawford@piac.ca
613-562-4002 ext 125 [new!]
Fax 562-0007
Cell: 613-447-8125
Fighting for consumer rights

@CanadaPIAC

Judy Duncan, ACORN Canada, canadaacorn@acorncanada.org 416-996-6401

Courtney Mo, Momentum, courtneym@momentum.org 403-204-6180

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The post “We Fight for That” Ep. 11 – “The Internet Affordability Revolution will not be Subsidized with Shelley Robinson” appeared first on Public Interest Advocacy Centre.

John Lawford, PIAC Executive Director and General Counsel, decried the decision, saying: “Both the CRTC and the federal government lost their nerve in dealing with the major Internet providers. They backed away from a fair wholesale rate that would have increased consumer choice and lowered internet prices for Canadian consumers.”

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) decision today is a reconsideration of a previous CRTC order that ordered major Internet service providers such as Bell Canada, TELUS and Rogers sell wholesale access to their networks to allow competitors to offer their own services at affordable rates. The CRTC had, in their first decision, set a much lower rate than the rate approved today. The CRTC also had ordered rebates to small Internet providers that had paid more than the first decision’s final rate – but today’s decision largely removed that part of the order.

The major Internet providers launched a three-pronged attack on the CRTC’s original order: appealing to the courts (which dismissed their case); petitioning the government; and asking the CRTC for today’s decision. The Petition to the government was dismissed but accompanied by language that the major Internet providers claimed may have helped direct the CRTC to increase the rate.

Lawford noted that without most of the previously ordered rate repayments and with today’s higher rates, consumers may see some of the smaller Internet providers, who typically offer cheaper Internet service, go out of business in the near future.  “Consumers need affordable Internet more each day” noted Lawford. “But the government and the CRTC clearly were afraid to support competition during a pandemic and ahead of an election. They should fear consumer anger far more.”

For more information, please contact:

John Lawford

Executive Director and General Counsel

Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC)

613-562-4002 ext. 125 (New)

(613) 447-8125 (cell)

jlawford@piac.ca

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