Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition): 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?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): 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.