The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jack Layton has released Pocketbook Protector: A Consumer's Bill of Rights, which contains some of the NDP's new ideas to protect Canadian consumers and put more money in their pocket. "As Canadians get their credit card bills, endless telemarketing calls or price hikes on their cable or telephone bills, they're wondering why Paul Martin isn't protecting their pocketbooks and privacy from his corporate friends," said Layton. "The NDP believes it's time the federal government helped Ð by protecting consumers' rights and giving them tools that work." Layton said Pocketbook Protector responds to consumers' concerns over prices, privacy and pensions. Among its new ideas are: Establishing citizen utility boards. This innovative idea, in place in four U.S. states, requires federally-regulated companies such as banks, and phone and cable companies to fund citizen oversight boards that can challenge fee and rate increases and communicate with other consumers through the company's bills. Protecting Canadians from credit card gouging. The gap between the prime lending rate (4.25%) and the rate most credit cards charge (18.5%) has never been bigger. It's time to cap credit card interest rates to five points above prime, reducing the interest paid on almost $44 billion in credit card debt in Canada. Cracking down on instant loan and cheque-cashing companies. As chartered banks abandon poorer neighbourhoods, Money Mart-type institutions move in to capitalize on the lack of consumer choice. When exorbitant fees are included, these places routinely charge more than 60% interest, a level beyond what the Criminal Code permits. Establishing a national "do not call list". To protect citizens' privacy, we need a national do-not-call list for corporate telemarketers, while protecting charitable organizations, and tough sanctions against telemarketers who violate the list. Respecting the right to know what we eat. Despite endless Liberal rhetoric and massive public support, Canadians' still have no right to know what they eat. The NDP supports mandatory labelling for genetically engineered food, already in place in Europe, Australia and much of Asia. Protecting pensions and investors. In the wake of the Enron and WorldCom corporate scandals, the U.S. Government moved swiftly to force corporations to be truthful with their accounting through the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Canadian investors have no such protection, despite the fact Paul Martin was finance minister at the time, and it's time Canadian corporations were required to follow the same corporate accounting rules as American corporations. Layton said he welcomed a debate with Martin on how to better protect and empower consumers.
