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Matthew Green

Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
NDP

Hamilton Centre
Ontario
Voting Attendance: 66%
Expenses Last Quarter: $131,250.15

Government Page

Context: House Hansard - 180 - Apr/19/23

Mr. Matthew Green (Hamilton Centre, NDP)

Apr/19/23 4:50:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as a former city councillor, I was the first one in the province of Ontario to take on payday loans. I heard the hon. member mention the predatory practice of payday loan. At that point in time, it was a provincial Liberal government that was paying lip service to any kind of meaningful reform, yet in this budget, the remedies the Liberals have for payday loans are once again lip service. The Liberals would go to the industry and ask it to lower the rates, while the hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby has Bill C-213, a bill that is ready to go. It is a real, meaningful bill that would include amending the Criminal Code to lower the maximum legal interest rate from 60% to 30% and that would include the calculation of the interest rate within the overall charges for these payday loans. Why is it that, when the Liberal government has the power and the opportunity and the willing partners in the NDP to make true reforms to the predatory usury and the loan sharking that are payday loans, it refuses to do it? Is it because the past association president was Stan Keyes, the former Liberal?

204 words

Context: House Hansard - 165 - Mar/7/23

Mr. Matthew Green (Hamilton Centre, NDP)

Mar/7/23 10:07:11 a.m.
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Re: Bill C-27

Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the wonderful member forRosemont—La Petite-Patrie. I am grateful for the opportunity to rise today on Bill C-27, which is an act to enact the consumer privacy protection act, the personal information and data protection tribunal act and the artificial intelligence and data act, and to make consequential and related amendments. The amendments are what I am particularly interested in today. As New Democrats, we will be supporting this at second reading. We support the need to modernize Canada's privacy laws and establishing rules around data governance and empowering the Office of the Privacy Commissioner to bring enforcement actions to protect consumers and citizens. This bill takes some of those steps. However, there is a need to ensure that reforms are robust and effective. In my opinion, a long list of amendments will certainly be required to achieve these goals. I am going to be referencing two important works that have been presented. One is from the Centre for Digital Rights, entitled “Not Fit For Purpose - Canada Deserves Much Better”. From the title, we can note that there are some concerns with this bill. However, we recognize that this privacy legislation must be amended because there are already glaring shortfalls in PIPEDA, which urgently needs updating. Technology continues to evolve, and data-driven business continues to move away from a service-oriented approach to one that relies on monetizing personal information through mass surveillance of individuals and groups. While these businesses find new ways to expand their surveillance and methods of monetizing our personal information, Canadians' privacy is increasingly put at risk. The GDPR is the bar that is currently considered the adequate level of protection. However, if we were to do a little bit of comparing and contrasting, we would see that this bill tends to fall short of this level in terms of what the European Commission has done. What this means for us is that the ability for personal data to flow to Canada without any further safeguards is at risk. There has also been pressure from industry and advocacy groups, the privacy commissioners of Canada and abroad, and privacy and data governance experts. In fact, in this particular bill, we think that the government side has fallen short in its engagement with people; I will get to that in a moment. When we are in these technological environments, it is an ecosystem that goes well beyond our borders. We are talking about what it is like—

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All Topics

Context: House Hansard - 116 - Oct/24/22

Mr. Matthew Green (Hamilton Centre, NDP)

Oct/24/22 2:46:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, with growing fears about the looming recession, the need for strong social safety nets could not be more important for Canadians. Inflation has already made life unaffordable for most and rising interest rates will result in higher consumer debt, along with hard-working people losing their jobs. However, just last month, the Liberals allowed the temporary expansion of EI eligibility to expire, leaving workers in Hamilton Centre and across the country to suffer. Will the government commit to making long-overdue reforms to the EI program now to ensure that workers can get the financial support that they have earned and that they deserve?

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Member of Parliament

Matthew Green