Thank you very much to the member for Humber River–Black Creek for always being informative and helping us understand a bill like this and how it affects people. My question to you is—I know you spoke about this, but can you just explain a little bit more about the people who are most vulnerable to these kinds of malpractices when it comes to consumer protection? You know: seniors, for example; young folks. Can you explain how this bill could have been better to protect those folks?

Thank you very much for the question. Definitely, this bill, at least in words, is seeking to address vulnerable individuals who are being affected and taken advantage of by these predatory scams. But as I had mentioned earlier, one thing that’s lacking is the fact that, though we continue to arm them with better laws—and there appears to be better laws included here—the problem is that those very same people have to go to court to fight to get justice.

I think we need more. We need to empower those advocates who are fighting to make recommendations to improve laws—not just here, but in all categories. We have to find a way to create an ally that could stand up for Ontarians, better advise governments and better advise consumers, which is the watchdog act that is running parallel to this legislation here. This legislation has a series of positive changes, and I hope that they in turn will take a look at our legislation as well.

We are in agreement that consumers need way more protection than they have had to date and that this bill does do that—but I think that, really, what is concerning is that people still are required to seek redress in court. So my question would be—particularly for vulnerable people; seniors, for example; young people who don’t have the means or the resources to go to court—do you think that this is a barrier in seeking redress and justice, and can you think of ways that the government could have improved this to make sure that people who have been transgressed have the ability to see some justice?