Mr. Chair, I would like to thank my colleague from Burnaby—New Westminster for speaking about the reality that most Canadians actually experience as opposed to the reality that we have heard from the parliamentary secretary tonight.
I had to chuckle when I heard the parliamentary secretary crow about this sensible, balanced approach that we have for the Liberal government. I was thinking to myself, what is so balanced about the fact that banks are allowed to go almost 15 points above the prime rate? That is very balanced, is it not? It is certainly helping a lot of Canadians, is it not?
This is why we are having this take note debate tonight. It is because there is a serious situation out there and it has to do with the serious imbalance that has taken place.
I represent a community where there are very low income neighbourhoods and where banks have packed up and gone. Poor people in particular are preyed upon by cheque-cashing companies, where, as the member for Burnaby—New Westminster has pointed out, the interest rates go far beyond the 19%. We are talking about 60% interest rates.
If people are living below the poverty line and do not have access to Internet banking--and I should advise the parliamentary secretary that not everybody has access to Internet banking--and if a bank closes down in a neighbourhood because it is now a neighbourhood that has fewer and fewer resources, people end up at those cheque-cashing companies because they have no other options and nowhere else to go. That is the reality of what we are talking about in the House tonight.
I would like to ask the member for Burnaby—New Westminster if he believes it is important that we bring in regulation to ensure there is not this massive gap between what a prime rate is and what these credit card or cheque-cashing companies can charge, so that Canadians actually do get a fair shake and an opportunity to take their hard-earned income and actually buy the things they need rather than putting it back into the banks that have already made a huge profit.