Fair Fees - Frais équitable

We’ve passed the first hurdle towards a living wage bylaw in the City of Ottawa by winning the first vote directing City staff to investigate possible Living Wage options.

Now comes the hard part. Over the coming months City staff will investigate different types of living wage bylaws before presenting proposals to Ottawa City Council for a vote. We need to make sure we have the votes necessary on Council to pass the most progressive of the options that staff will present.

ACORN Members are taking to the streets to lobby their councilors; can you send a quick message in support of their grassroots efforts?

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When ACORN began organizing around payday lending 5 years ago there were no rules, no licenses, and no rate caps; it was the wild west of lending.

On Friday the Government of Ontario announced that the cabinet has approved the new rate cap and that the provisions of The Payday Loan Act will be coming into effect over the coming months.

ACORN considers the key provisions of the legislation – banning rollover loans, licensing of lenders, 48 hour cooling off period – to be important victories, and an acknowledgement of the predatory practices that had become synonymous with the industry.

Feb 6, 2009 - Today the Board established by the Province of Ontario to make a recommendation on the cap for payday loan rates released their report. It calls for payday loan costs to be capped at $21 for every $100 borrowed.

While we hoped for a stronger rate cap, we urge the McGuinty administration to act quickly to make this recommendation law.  We are calling on Minister of Small Business and Consumer Protections (MPP Harindar Takhar) to immediately bring the issue to cabinet and to advocate for its quick approval.

This may not be the rate cap ACORN members wanted, but it's still a major victory.  When ACORN began organizing around payday lending, there were no rules, no licenses, and no rate caps; it was the wild west of lending.

Today most Provinces have brought in regulation to curb the most predatory of the practices in the industry, and slowly their bringing in rate caps to prevent excessive fee's and interest.

It's about time.

For the last 4 years ACORN has been organizing to win regulations to protect working families and consumers who use payday loans.

ACORN is pleased to announce a major step forward in this important campaign in Ontario.

Together with our allies at the National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO), the Public Interest Advocacy Center (PIAC) and Option Consommateurs (OC), we've submitted a letter of joint support to the provincial Board that will be making recommendations regarding the cost of payday loans.

In the letter we lay out 3 areas of core concern where the board can take bold action to rein-in the industries rates and protect consumers; Cost of borrowing for waged consumers, for consumers on social assistance and default rates.

This is one part of a long term strategy to reduce the cost of short term credit for low income consumers.  ACORN leaders are calling on Canada's Banks and Credit Unions to develop new low cost financial products that will give working families a mainstream alternative to payday loans.