QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
October 4, 2023
My question is for the government leader in the Senate. Information released through the Access to Information Act shows that since 2019, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, or FCAC, failed to follow up on any of the over 27,000 complaints it received from Canadians about breaches of the Bank Act. The agency claimed it doesn’t know how many of these complaints it has investigated since 2019, saying it doesn’t track that information. This is an odd response given that its 2021-22 annual report says that in that year alone, the agency received 295 complaints “related to consumer protection measures that FCAC oversees.”
Leader, has the Trudeau government done anything in response to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada’s inaction regarding complaints from Canadians about their banks?
Thank you for your question. Canadians should be satisfied that there is in place, through legislation that we enacted some years ago, nationwide consumer protection provisions that affect the banking system and which were made more robust through legislation that this government introduced and this chamber passed.
With regard to your particular question, senator, I will certainly bring that to the attention of the relevant minister. I really don’t have further information about those incidents at this juncture.
Well, unfortunately for Canadians, this agency appears to be part of a well-established pattern under the Trudeau government of being very good at spending taxpayers’ dollars while producing few, if any, results. The failed Canada Infrastructure Bank is an obvious example.
Leader, could you let us know how much in taxpayer dollars the Financial Consumer Agency has paid out in long-term and short-term incentives or bonuses to its staff since 2019? Could you also tell us how much this agency has paid out in termination benefits and any other —
Thank you, Senator Martin.
— type of discretionary bonuses since 2019?
I don’t have that information, senator, but I think that the chamber should understand that the agencies that do the work on behalf of Canadians need to be properly supported and need to do their work as we expect them to do and, as I know, to the best of their ability.
