Thank you, Madam Speaker. I want to use today’s opportunity to ask certain questions regarding the consumer affairs division. Sorry, I’m going to change topic for Cabinet and I’m sure they’re disappointed.
On March 6, 2013, the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs committed to me in the House several items, but perhaps the issue really boils down to simply this: I was concerned, and many people in the public are concerned, that the consumer affairs division is anonymous, just like those 571 jobs as a matter of fact. Incidentally, I should say. But that said, I asked the Minister what he would do to promote to profile this office and certainly to access that, and as such, he provided several commitments to the House which are basically to say that they’ll make sure information gets out there, they’ll publicize it, they’ll do outreach and it goes on and on and on.
I guess my question to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs is: They’ve had almost a year – because that’s from Hansard of March 6, 2013 – what have they done to promote this idea when consumers are tired and exhausted, whether it’s gas prices, cell phone prices, other areas of complaint that they legitimately need to bring to an office to complain about to research and get something done for consumer protection? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Our consumer affairs office is actually all of two people. As far as communicating to the public, if there’s a slippage there, that’s on my part. I’ll wear that. But I will see what kind of information we have out there and relay it on to the Member. Thank you.
Madam Speaker, a commitment was made in the House about developing a communications plan to get out there, we want to promote phone numbers and access points. In my view, the consumer affairs division may not need a singular street window type of office where people can walk up to, but the fact is, it needs to be publicized in a way that people know where to bring their concerns.
Does the Minister see this as important, or should it be nestled away in some area of government that it’s kept anonymous, as it seems to be? Thank you.
Madam Speaker, our consumer affairs office is not nestled away. If there’s a slippage in promoting it – and I did make the commitment and I will follow up with the department as soon as we’re done here – but it’s not nestled away. We don’t receive many complaints at the moment, but again, that’s still no excuse for not communicating as well as we should that the office exists and what the numbers are. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, perhaps they don’t get any complaints because no one knows they exist. That could be part of the issue.
I guess my question would be: When would the Minister be able to address this problem? He says he’s going to go back to the department. I heard that; that wasn’t lost upon me. But he did say almost a year ago that they would get on this, so I would like to know if he could have an action plan sent to my office before the end of next week as to how they will address these issues.
The action plan doesn’t mean they’ve done it. What the action plan clearly states is these are the issues we see as a problem the Member has been raising and we’re going to tackle them in this type of approach, and that could at least get me through to at least next week and we can leave it at that. Thank you.
As I stated before, I will follow up with the department and I will ask for an action plan and have to it to the Member by the end of March.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Perhaps my calendar is different than the Minister’s, although he’s laughing and I think he did it as a joke and I’ll accept it in the way it was delivered with some humour. But let’s just be clear. Let’s work off the February 21st date, if that’s agreeable.
Again, I’m looking for an action plan on direction. I’m not looking for a 20-page report, I’m just looking for a couple pages that say this is how we’re strategizing and we will work toward achievables. Thank you.
I’m glad the Member took it for the way it was intended, and we were all laughing with him. I’ll have some information for the Member by the end of next week. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
