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During Question Period, Gabriel Ste-Marie of the Bloc Québécois asked about the government’s decision to end the Canadian consumer protection initiative, a fund that supported research into living costs and competition. He argued the roughly $7 million in savings was trivial compared to what the government spends elsewhere, including on oil companies, and said cutting it would leave no one examining grocery prices, phone contracts, or airline fees. Industry Minister Mélanie Joly replied that the government will present a new vision for competition in Canada, intends to work with consumer protection organizations on funding, and noted that consumer protection is largely a provincial and territorial responsibility. She added that the government wants consumers informed of their rights and is working to increase competition in the grocery and telecommunications sectors.Written by AI from the debate. Updated .

Official text

4 statements

Gabriel Ste-Marie

Bloc Québécois
“The government is cutting seven million dollars for research that helps protect consumers from high living costs. It still gives billions to oil companies. I want to know why the minister protects big business instead of Canadians.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals announced on Thursday that they were eliminating the Canadian consumer protection initiative. That is a fund that supported research into things like the cost of living and competition. It would have gotten $7 million between 2025 and 2027. That is peanuts to a government that is handing out tens of billions of dollars to oil companies. However, losing that funding reduces our organizations’ ability to work. When it comes to consumer protection, why is the minister standing up for big business instead of Canadians?

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Mélanie Joly

Liberal

Linked statement

“We will present a new plan for business competition in Canada. We will fund groups that protect consumers. We will also work with the provinces and territories to fix these issues, because they are mainly in charge of protecting consumers.”

  • Government answer in Question Period

    Clarity 28 of 100

    Much of this statement used imprecise wording, lacked details on timing or responsibility, or made broad claims without support.

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Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, we are going to present a new vision for competition in Canada. Of course we believe in the importance of civil society for improving consumer protection. We are going to work with the organizations to ensure that they have access to funding, because their work is extremely important. At the same time, we are going to work with the provinces and territories because we know that they are largely responsible for everything to do with consumer protection. In short, we will find a solution to this problem. I look forward to working on this issue with my colleague.

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Gabriel Ste-Marie

Bloc Québécois
“The government is cutting consumer protection programs to save a tiny amount of money. This helps big companies instead of people, because no one will investigate grocery prices, phone contracts, or airline fees. I want the minister to explain why.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, I hope that is the case, because eliminating the Canadian consumer protection initiative will have no impact on public finances. It is a drop in the bucket. Then again, eliminating it is quite a gift for large corporations that cut corners. The Liberals are preventing consumer protection agencies from investigating things like shrinkflation in grocery stores, contracts in the telecommunications and banking sectors, airline pricing practices, and the list goes on. They are literally helping large companies protect themselves from consumers who are well informed about their rights. How can the minister justify that?

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Mélanie Joly

Liberal
“We want shoppers to know their rights. We are taking strong action to create more competition among grocery stores and telecom companies, while also protecting consumer groups.”

  • Government answer in Question Period

    Relevance 100 of 100

    Of this answer, 100% addressed the question that was asked.

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Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, of course we want consumers to be well informed about their rights. We also believe that we need to do more to encourage competition in the grocery sector, particularly in grocery stores and among all the big chains, as well as in the telecommunications sector, where we know that monopolies or oligopolies sometimes exist, which is problematic. That is why we are going to take an extremely clear and aggressive approach to competition, while protecting organizations like Option consommateurs, which are also important to Quebeckers and Canadians.

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