Manitoba celebrated its first Consumer Rights on March 15, recognizing the importance of protecting consumers and ensuring the rules governing consumer transactions are fair and reasonable. This announcement was made by Healthy Living, Seniors and Consumer Affairs Minister Jim Rondeau.
“In a rapidly changing marketplace, it is vitally important to safeguard the interests of consumers,” said Rondeau. “In the spirit of the Consumer Rights Day Act, which was passed last spring, I am pleased to announce that March 15 of each year will be recognized as Consumer Rights Day to highlight the importance of protecting and respecting consumers.”
Manitoba is nearing the mid-point of an ambitious five-year plan to strengthen consumer protection, Rondeau said. The full plan is available online at www.gov.mb.ca/fs/cca/cpo/deal.html. Called Let’s Make a Better Deal, the five-year plan recognizes that better consumer protection means better business, the minister said, adding numerous measures have already been implemented including:
• creating new rules for information disclosure when buying a car,
• implementing new debt settlement regulations,
• adopting legislation banning negative-option marketing,
• providing an independent advisor program to landlords and tenants,
• introducing payday lending fee limits, and
• creating new rules to ensure fairness in cell-phone contracts.
To better serve Manitobans, the Consumer Protection Office will also begin offering tips and alerts by e-mail and through Twitter and Facebook. Manitobans can follow @MBgov and visit facebook.com/manitobagovernment for more information, or e-mail consumers@gov.mb.ca to add their address to the e-mail distribution list.
The Manitoba Consumer Protection Office is also partnering with groups such as the Consumers’ Association of Canada (Manitoba), Community Financial Counselling Services, the Public Interest Law Centre and Community Financial Services, to host a two-day conference on financial services on June 13 and 14 this year.
Titled Creating Community Options for Financial Services, the conference will delve into why some citizens do not use mainstream financial services such as banks and credit unions, and instead use high-cost services such as payday loans, Rondeau said. The conference will explore alternative financial services for those not using traditional banking and credit options.
A progress report on Manitoba’s Consumer Protection Strategy is available at: www.gov.mb.ca/cca/cpo/progress.html.
For more information on the Creating Community Options for Financial Services conference, visit www.ccofs.com.
