441-01276 (Consumer protection)

The Government of Canada would like to thank the petitioners for sharing their views on improving Canada’s consumer protection framework.

The government recognizes Canadian consumers' vital role in securing our economic future in a post-COVID environment. This is demonstrated in its focus on implementing a number of measures to make life more affordable for Canadians and ensure greater consumer protection. These efforts include those outlined in Budget 2022 and Budget 2023, such as:

• Introducing targeted legislation to strengthen Canada’s external complaints handling systems for banks and to designate a single, not-for-profit corporate body as the sole external complaints body (ECB). These enhancements will remove the ability for banks to choose which ECB to be a member of and ensure that the complaints-handling system will no longer run on a for-profit basis.  
• Strengthening air passenger rights and airline obligations to compensate passengers for delays and cancellations and aligning Canada's air passenger rights regime with those of leading international approaches to ensure that passengers are fairly compensated. These measures build on the government’s March 14, 2023, announcement of an additional $75.9 million in funding over three years to the Canadian Transportation Agency for air passenger consumer protection. 
• Working with regulatory agencies, provinces, and territories to reduce the unexpected, hidden, and additional fees that have become a consumers burden without adding value. The government is referring to these additional fees as junk fees. It is committed to examining how it can work to limit these unnecessary costs to consumers on goods and services – including higher telecom roaming charges, event and concert fees, excess baggage fees, and unjustified shipping and freight fees. This builds on recent steps the government has taken to protect Canadians from hidden costs, including the 2022 amendments to the Competition Act to clarify that the practice of “drip pricing” (failing to disclose all obligatory charges at the outset) is false or misleading.

Further, the Prime Minister directed the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, through his current mandate letter, to enhance consumer protection with commitments that include: 

• Undertaking a broad review of the current legislative and structural elements that may restrict or hinder competition. This includes, the role and functioning of the Competition Act and its enforcement regime; whether key aspects of the regime are fit for purpose; and whether the law can stand up to new challenges brought about by the evolution of our economy, especially digital transformation. This is in part to ensure that Canadians are protected from anti-consumer practices in critical sectors, including in the oil and gas, telecommunications and financial services sectors;
• Introducing legislation to advance the Digital Charter, strengthen privacy protections for consumers and provide a clear set of rules that ensure fair competition in the online marketplace.

As a preliminary step toward modernizing Canada’s competition regime and addressing current market concerns, the government recently made some changes to the Competition Act to better protect Canadian consumers, businesses and workers from anti-competitive conduct. Building on these changes, between November 2022 and March 2023, the government held a public consultation toward a broader and open-ended review of the law, inviting comments from the general public on various areas for potential improvement and reconsideration in the Competition Act, that will help the Competition Bureau better protect consumers and the integrity of the marketplace. Further information on this consultation is available on the Consultation on the future of competition policy in Canada page.

Furthermore, in August 2021, the Government of Canada launched the Consumer Hub, an online resource finder to help consumers seek redress for banking, telecom or transportation-related complaints. Since its launch, around 500 users visit the hub each month, with popular searches on topics like travel agency issues, mobile phone equipment issues, banks, and over 65% of visitors looking for information on the transportation sector.

These and other actions continue to protect and empower consumers as the government works to build a more resilient, sustainable, and competitive economy post-pandemic. Once again, thank you for bringing these concerns forward.