e-3150 (Consumer protection)

Petition to the Government of Canada

• In 2019, the Ministers of Industry, Seniors, and Middle-Class Prosperity were mandated to create a Canadian Consumer Advocate to provide a single point of contact for consumers needing help with their complaints about federally regulated banking, telecom, or transportation-related sectors;
• To date, the government has failed to deliver on this mandate;
• While this initiative is important, a need exists for improved consumer protection frameworks for all sectors of the economy;
• Federal government attention to protecting consumers has eroded over the past several decades and consumers’ voices are absent when important policy, regulatory and legislative decisions are made;
• COVID-19 has created stress on the consumer protection legal, regulatory and standards frameworks Canada depends upon, exposing gaps in governments’ preparedness and capacity to protect Canadians;
• The current patchwork approach to consumer protection is a failing strategy as Canadians navigate increasingly complex markets dominated by powerful special interests, and this will hamper a post COVID-19 economic recovery; and
• Progress in meeting future economic and social challenges lies in the establishment of an independent federal advocate with a sole function to argue for consumers, support their voice through civil society, and stress the relationship of their needs to the decision-making processes within agencies of government.