With many Saskatchewan residents facing financial hardship due to the pandemic, the province’s official opposition is calling for interest caps on credit cards and payday loans.
“We know that the situation that people are facing right now is dire,” said Trent Wotherspoon, the NDP’s finance critic, at a media conference on April 9. “They’re looking for a lifeline, not a millstone.”
The NDP is asking the province to cap credit card lenders at 11 per cent, cap the maximum interest rate for short-term loans at 19 per cent from the current maximum of 59.9 per cent, and cap the maximum fees for payday loans at $15 per $100 borrowed.
Alysia Johnson, a Regina resident, also spoke at the conference. She faced financial difficulties after a divorce and ended up borrowing from a payday lender.
“In my past experience with high interest loans, it's something that with recovery, you really have to measure in years, not in months.”
Johnson called on the province to implement regulations on payday lenders to make sure that people could recover from the pandemic faster.
“When they can go out onto the market and be offered up to 59.9 per cent interest in their most desperate time of need, we really need to sit back and think what is our tolerance for lending opportunism from the financial misery of others in a public health crisis?”
