Ontario Liberals say Ford government could change how loyalty points expire

The Ontario Liberals are raising concerns the provincial government could change whether consumer rewards programs expire, though the Ford government argues there’s no planned adjustment to the rules.

“The premier is sneaking through a piece of legislation that will allow everyday Ontarians’ reward points to expire,” said John Fraser, Liberal MPP, during question period on Monday.

At issue is the Progressive Conservatives’ Bill 46, an omnibus bill proposing several changes to provincial laws including Ontario’s Consumer Protection Act.

Currently, section 47 of the Act says that no company can create or change its rewards programs to add an expiration date to such program’s points.

That clause was added in 2016 by the then Liberal government, which came into force in 2017, to prevent companies from putting in certain expiration rules. The move came months after Air Miles raised the ire of consumers for trying to put in a five-year expiry rule on its points.

But the Liberals are arguing that the Ford government’s proposed change could allow it to set new rules.

“In 2016, Ontario Liberals gave Ontario consumers the wonderful Christmas gift of protecting reward points from expiry due to the passage of time,” said Liberal MPP Stephen Blais, who also serves as critic for Government Services, in a news release on Monday.

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“This Christmas, the Premier is playing the Grinch; sneaking into Whoville to snatch away families’ hard-earned reward points before they even get a chance to use them.”

The Ford government, however, is rebuking the claims by the Liberals.

“Absolutely nothing in our bill makes it easier for companies to take away your reward points,” said Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement Stephen Crawford during question period.

Crawford went on to say the changes will also “strengthen” consumer protections, giving customers more recourse.

“They give people more rights, not less,” he said. “Number one, businesses will have to respond when someone asks for their points back. If your points were frozen, cancelled, or disappeared, companies will now have an obligation to respond back to that, and for the first time ever, you will have the opportunity to take legal recourse.”

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Given many Ontarians use rewards points for everyday essentials, such as PC Optimum for groceries, Patrick Sojka said such protections would be beneficial.

“Some people were told their accounts were frozen because they broke terms and conditions and they had no clue that they broke the terms and conditions and the program won’t tell them what terms or conditions they broke,” Sojka, who founded rewardscanada.ca, told Global News.

Sojka’s website studies loyalty programs and he said in one case, a customer purchasing diapers and formula planned to use points to pay for $40 worth of products in a $100 purchase. However, they were told their account was frozen, meaning they had to put away some of those items because they had only budgeted to use $60 in cash.

He said if the government were to make changes allowing for recourse, it could help ensure better communication when consumers run into issues.

The legislation that was put in place that the Liberals are raising concerns about primarily revolve around time-based expiry, but Sojka cautioned that while Ontarians are protected from a company making it so points expire three years after you earn them, they can still expire for reasons like inactivity.

“If you’re not active in a program, they can cancel your points, expire your points, close your account down and that can range from 12 months, 24 months, 36 months, depending on the program if you’re not active,” Sojka said.

He added people should check not only to ensure they’re not frozen, but ensure their points have not been subject to fraud or security breaches.

The legislation has currently been sent to a legislative committee for study, which will include public hearings.