City approves licensing system for payday loan establishments

By Chris Jones/The Oshawa Express

Payday loan establishments will now be required to get an operating license in the City of Oshawa.

Under the new licensing system, payday loan establishments will be restricted to two per ward, and the establishment of new payday loan companies downtown will be prohibited.

These establishments will also need to be 150 metres away from one another.

With the passing of the new rules surrounding payday loan establishments, Ward 1 City and Regional Councillor John Neal expressed relief.

The veteran councillor said this has been a “pet project” for him, and he believes Oshawa is the first in Durham Region to come forward with a set of rules.

“I think it really is going to lift this city,” he said.

Neal also lamented the lack of banks in the southern end of the city.

“The banks have left. It’s like a desert area for banking,” he said.

Ward 3 City Councillor Bradley Marks was pleased to see the new rules as well, noting his surprise at how much demand there is for these services.

“I hired a young gentleman to assist me with some work… and he told me that he was taking the money that I was paying him and taking it right to this (payday loan establishment) and it was going to pay down the loan that he took out,” said Marks.

Ward 4 City Councillor Derek Giberson also expressed his support for the new by-law, noting there are 13 such businesses in his ward alone.

“My disdain for these organizations is no secret. I think they’re predatory,” said Giberson. “If I could snap my fingers and make them disappear off the face of the earth, I would.”

However, the Ward 4 councillor pointed to larger systemic issues which force people to use payday loan establishments. He noted simply removing them from existence won’t eliminate the need.

“It’s not going to solve the problems of why housing costs are so high in this day and age, that it’s eating up so much of people’s already stretched incomes that they are resorting to places like this,” he said.

He said he not only wants to see the new bylaw enforced, but wants to look at the “bigger picture”.

“Let’s also make sure that we’re doing our duty as public representatives not just to enforce and limit, but also to be actively advocating and working to deal with those bigger systemic problems that lead to so many of them existing in the first place,” he said.

Mayor Dan Carter noted the limiting of payday loan establishments also speaks to the issue of affordability many Canadians are experiencing.

“They don’t have the option of having overdraft protection at their banks, and therefore they’re looking for alternative ways of making ends meet,” he said.

The mayor then expressed a desire to see a method in which everyone can afford to live in Oshawa.