Mr. Speaker, I am extremely proud to have the opportunity to speak to this bill today, Bill C-419, the credit card fairness act, which would amend the Bank Act, Insurance Companies Act, Cooperative Credit Associations Act and the Trust and Loan Companies Act. I want to thank the member of Parliament for Lethbridge for bringing this private member's bill forward.

Why am I so proud to speak to this today? Ultimately, government has a responsibility in protecting the consumer. Once upon a time, from 1967 to 1995, this House and our federal government had a minister of consumer and corporate affairs. Then, unfortunately, under the government of Jean Chrétien, the Liberal government, that position was eliminated.

What is the role of a minister of consumer and corporate affairs? The role of government, or governing, is to balance the interests of the individual citizen with the interests of corporations and to ensure society is protected and looks after the well-being of not only the citizens of today but of tomorrow.

The government has a responsibility to protect citizens when they are not necessarily able to protect themselves. That is what consumer protection is about. This is why we have a bank act, an insurance act and a co-operative credit act. It is to ensure that financial institutions holding citizens' money, and therefore a significant amount of power and influence, are not able to take advantage of individual citizens.

Unfortunately, we no longer have that voice at the cabinet table. We no longer have a minister whose sole responsibility is to keep tabs on those kinds of things and ensure individual citizens who are not able to go up against these great corporations, or institutions like a bank, have their voices heard. Therefore, because these individuals are not able to defend themselves in this manner, we have a member of Parliament who needs to bring a private member's bill forward simply to address some of the punitive and monopolistic practices of banks around the terms and conditions of credit cards.

This bill is about fairness and transparency, but what exactly is in this bill? This bill has seven key elements. The first would mandate that if a cardholder pays more than 95% of his or her outstanding balance before the payment due date, the bank could not charge interest on the whole amount. This means that I can be charged after the due date, not for the balance that I have not paid after the due date, but for the entire outstanding balance that was on that bill. I can honestly say that I did not know that could actually happen. I thought credit card companies could only charge interest on the balance, the amount I did not pay, not on the amount of the bill and, therefore, the amount I did not pay plus the amount I did pay. This is a critical change because it would mean that the credit card company would only be able to charge interest on the balance that is outstanding after the due date.

The second would ensure that if different rates apply to different amounts owing in a billing cycle, the companies would have to apply the payments to the highest interest rate balances first. Therefore, if I have a number of balances, each of which can be at a different interest rate and I pay off the credit card, right now they do not have to say that it goes against the highest rate first. They can charge me the highest rate on the entire outstanding balance. This would fix that. It would mean that when a balance is paid, it would go against the highest interest rate first. That sounds reasonable and fair.

Number three, it would require credit card companies to disclose, on the monthly statement, how much interest the cardholder has paid in the previous 12 months. That just seems like transparency in labelling. Absolutely, the credit card companies should be required to tell people how much interest they have paid in the last 12 months.

Number four, it would require credit card advertisements and marketing materials to prominently communicate the annual fee, the annual interest rate, the period of time until the introductory rate ended and the interest rate that would apply following that period. It also seems obvious that a credit card company would have to tell people what the interest rate would be when the introductory rate ended and what rate would apply in the following period. I did not know that this was not the case today. Absolutely, that is something that every consumer should have the right to know.

Number five, it would prohibit credit card companies from increasing interest rates retroactively on a cardholder's outstanding balance. Again, I am shocked to say that I did not think it was even legal that I could buy something 12 months ago and carry a balance on that, and the credit company could change the interest rate today and charge me the new interest rate on the balance of the amount I incurred at that time under the terms and conditions at a lower rate. That seems unreasonable and absolutely should immediately be changed.

Number six, it would require credit card companies to provide cardholders with an online mechanism to cancel their credit cards and decrease their credit limit. To communicate with credit card companies, people have no choice but to phone them, yet it is very difficult to get through. They do that, one could assume, on purpose. People pay their bills online. Most of us send emails. Most of us do most of our communication over the Internet, yet to cancel a credit card or decrease a credit limit to manage our finances more effectively, we can only do that in person. This would have it be applicable online. Brilliant.

Number seven, last but not least, the bill would legislate that credit card companies could not automatically increase a cardholder's credit limit. Wow. Again, how are they legally able to without telling cardholders? Clearly this is something we should support.

Why does this matter? There are 73 million credit cards, and 42% of Canadians do not pay off their debt, and many of them have $200 in balance. We have found that many people are within $200 each month of insolvency.

This bill would not jeopardize the free market. It would not have far-sweeping and exclusive principles. It would not completely address all the things that need to be changed in consumer protection. It would just address something critical, finite and long overdue.

My compliments to the member for Lethbridge. A private member's bill is a great deal of work, and often members of Parliament are not given due credit. These are things governments should do. These are things ministers of corporate and consumer affairs should address. However, in the absence of that, this member of Parliament from Lethbridge went above and beyond to do this very important work on things that, in my personal opinion, should already not be legal to stand up not only for the consumers in her riding but for the citizens of this entire nation.

Many of us do not have a choice not to have a credit card, because our society is structured so that many have no choice but to have a credit card. We are held hostage by the banks until such time as federal government legislation protects us.

I call on all the members in this House to support this very important private member's bill. Once again, I thank the member of Parliament for Lethbridge for putting this private member's bill forward on behalf of all of us.

Leona Alleslev

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Private Members' Business

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