Consumers Council of Canada has called for an expanded mandate for the federal government’s new Canadian Consumer Advocate and greater recognition of and support for consumer representation in creating policies and standards.

The Council made a submission to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance’s consultation towards the 2021 budget. Its submission covered numerous topics and made five recommendations. The recommendations follow numerous other examples of work done by Canadian consumer organizations to highlight the shortcomings of consumer representation and how it might be improved.

Options Consommateur recently published an opinion piece by Canada’s former director general of the Office of Consumer Affairs Michael Jenkin that described how Canadian consumer group potency has fallen from the mid-1960s and how consumer groups today are “small, lack profile and are seriously underfunded for the task at hand” compared to their counterparts in other advanced nations.

Investor advocacy group FAIR Canada had to return $2.4 million in donor funding last year because it was unable to secure matching financing from governments, securities regulators and other industry self-regulatory organizations.

Consumers with greater interest in the topic, or who wish to support the Council’s advocacy to protect consumer interests can purchase a copy of the pre-budget submission through the Council’s online content store, available as both an e-book and PDF.