The Need for Academic CIR: a Consumer Advocate S Point of View

Academic Consumer Interest Research (CIR) in Policy-Making:
Strengthening a Canadian Network

Sunday, September 30th, 2012

Toronto, ON

The need for academic CIR: a consumer advocate’s point of view

Elizabeth Nielsen

Consumers Council of Canada

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. It gives me a great deal of pleasure to be here today as a member of the Consumers Council of Canada to participate in this Workshop on Consumer Interest Research in policy making. This workshop is important in order to build linkages between those who carry out the research and those who use the findings to influence the development of policy within government, industry and the standards development community. It should help to create greater mutual awareness of the potential positive outcomes of consumer interest research, and how we can work together to identify research gaps, set research priorities and move the necessary research agenda forward.

Before starting, I would like provide you with a brief overview of the Consumers Council of Canada. It is an organization that advocates for the implementation of the United Nations Charter of Rights for consumers including among others the right to safety, the right to be informed, the right to a healthy environment and the right to be heard. The Consumers Council of Canada endeavors to work collaboratively with consumers, business and government in support of consumers' rights and responsibilities, in order to establish an efficient, equitable, effective and safe marketplace for consumers.

The CCC has also conducted consumer research that has been used for public interest policy development by government, various boards, tribunals and standard developers. Some of the recent research examples include:

Renovation rip-offs

Prepaid wireless plans

Experience with tax free savings plans

Social responsibility

Energy efficiency standards on housing affordability

Smart phones- are they helping consumers be smarter consumers?

The Impact of Nanotechnology on consumers.

The Council is a member of the Canadian Consumer Initiative which develops common policy positions across a number of consumer organizations including theConsumers Council of Canada, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Option consommateurs and Union des consommateurs.

As a member of the Board of Directors of the Consumers Council of Canada and a consumer representative on committees developing standards for the Canadian Standards Association and ISO, I have been involved in a number of consumer issues. From this experience, I know how valuable it is to have unbiased evidence and research to back up positions being put forwardin order to effectively influence the policy decisions being made. Without solid evidence it is very difficult for a consumer advocate to sit down at a table with senior government officials, lawyers, scientists and business executives to influence the regulations, policies and standards they are developing. Unless the consumer representative has solid evidence, the issues or points raised by him/her is ignored.

This morning, I plan to provide an overview of:

the type and scope of the issues in which consumer representatives are involved;
the type of research that is needed and how it is used;
the challenges that consumer representatives face in indentifying and accessing your research; and
Potential opportunities to resolve some of these challenges.

The Issues in Which Consumer Advocates are Involved.

Consumer representatives become involved in a wide range of issues requiring unbiased evidence and research to support the positions they are presenting. For example, in the past year, consumer representatives took part in Senate hearings on food safety, consultations on legislation and regulation being developed by various federal and provincial government departments, and the development of national and international standards impacting on all facets of our daily lives. The issues have ranged from the modernization of food inspection, food labelling, new consumer product safety legislation, environmental fees, energy efficiency, copy right reform, privacy, electronic purchases and payments and new technologies such as nanotechnology. The data required to participate in these issues is often multi-disciplinary in nature coming from economic, scientific, legal, ethical and social science disciplines.

Why do we need research?

You can see from the range of public policy issues impacting consumers that we become involved in why we need accurate unbiased evidence. What we aim to achieve is good public policy that addresses the concerns of consumers.I would also argue that the private sector has a direct interest in ensuring that consumer interest research is carried out. It helps them understand consumers’ needs and the problems that consumers face in the marketplace. The results of such research enables business to offer products and services that meet the needs of consumers and avoid policies that can disappoint them or lose confidence in a brand name.

Consumer attitudes and behaviours are changing. In order to represent the consumer interest, it is essential that we know and understand how it is changing and the factors that are responsible for the change.

More services are being offered and again we do not know how this is affecting consumers’ purchasing decisions, how well do they understand the contracts they are signing or how to evaluate the quality of the service they are purchasing.

Rapid technological change is also transforming the marketplace. It has resulted in many new products and services that not only increase consumer choice but challenge consumers to keep upwith these new applications. It also challenges those developing the technologies to understand the impact of their product on everything from health andthe environment to privacy. The rapid product turnover can be expensive and confusing for consumers and it can result in health and environmental problems due to the use and disposal of thesenew products or out of date equipment.

Nanotechnology is an example of such a new technology in which I have been involved. It is expanding into all areas of our lives including consumer products, food, drugs, medical devices, energy equipment, etc. Although the benefits of this new technology appear endless, no one knows what the short or long term impacts of the technology will be on our health or the environment. Questions about how the potential adverse effects of the technology will be identified, studied and managed have been raised. While the science to engineer nanomaterials has evolved largely over the past 15 years, the laws to regulate materials were crafted in the 1970s. Therefore, does our understanding of and information about nanotechnology adequately inform policy to ensure safe product development? As nanomaterials proliferate, are current policies up to the task?

Government is involved in the drafting and implementation of a number of trade agreements many of them demanding harmonization of regulations and standards. This leads to concerns about the lowering of consumer and environmental protection.

In many sectors, the Canadian marketplace is dominated by imports which provide greater consumer choice but like the trade agreements also raise concerns about consumer protection.For example, in 2010, $30 billion of food was imported into Canada according to CFIA. Claims have been made that only 2% of the imported food is inspected.What this means for the safety of the food supply is not known.

What Type of Research is Needed?

Some research needs that were identified by various consumer representatives and from a CSA workshop on the subject involving consumer representatives who take part in standards development include such issues as the examples that follow.

Effectiveness and impact of labelling. Data on to what extent consumers understand,pay attention to labels and information provided and make use of this information.
Research on the factors that affect the purchasing decisions, attitudes and behaviours of consumers.
Research on how consumers actually use products and services and does this impact on energy requirements, design of a product or service, or performance.

The need for multi-disciplinary factor analysis – e.g. an electrical inspector looks for an electrical problem but just because you were using an electrical appliance doesn’t mean that electricity is the cause of the problem.

Pre and post injury and causal data - what led to the incident /injury as well as information about the actual injury.
The impact of harmonization initiatives under various trade agreements on consumer protection, costs and accessibility to products is required on such a complex issue.
The impact of imports such as that recommended by Richard Holley from the University of Manitoba,who recommended that the federal government start compiling a database specifically looking at outbreaks and sicknesses caused by imported foods, to understand better how to inspect and regulate imported foods.
Analysis of the consequences of rapid technological change in terms of the costs to consumers, the extent to which consumers understand the technology, the impact on their health, the environment, and privacy. E.g. smart meters, internet sales, smart phones.
The extent to which services rapidly change, how to evaluate them and the quantity and quality of the services.

If you look at what consumers want from services you will generally find the following:

Services that are affordable and easy to access, and that are suitable for all parts of society;

A reasonable (though not excessive) range of options in terms of both providers and products, which will meet their own particular needs;
Competition and choice, which in turn drives innovation;
Clear charges with clarity about what you’re paying for;
Timely and efficient service, with work of an agreed quality;
Effective communication; and
Effective redress when things go wrong.

Challenges that we face

Unfortunately, most consumer representatives do not always know what consumer research work is actually being conducted in Canadathat could help them in developing policy positions or inputting effectively into the development of regulations or standards. For instance, there is no comprehensive inventory of consumer interest research that is being conducted within government, industry organizations or academia that we can access.

In addition to not always knowing what research is being carried out or having to spend many hours trying to locate it, consumer representative cannot readily access the research or related analysis. Much of the academic research is behind pay-walls, government research is not always made public, and industry can be very secretive about the work it is doing. Therefore, such research is largely inaccessible to the general public. I am sure that there is a lot of valuable research that has been carried out that we don’t use in our policy development activities because of this restricted access.

Adding to the complexity are the gaps that exist in consumer interest research which means that solid evidence to support positions is not available.

Opportunities for researchers and consumer representatives to meet and exchange and share information and ideas about consumer research that is needed does not occur. As a result,it is difficult to influence the research that is being carried out to ensure that research gaps are filled and that priority areas are being worked on.

I understand the difficulty that academic researchers have in carrying out this research. It is very similar to our situation when we try to carry out research to fill the gaps in the evidence that we need. There just is not sufficient consumer interest research funding available to academia and consumer organizations. Without sustainable research funding, it is not possible to carry out the research that is needed.The consequences of this situation for the data being produced or the training and development of analysts or researchers who could work in the field are obvious.

Potential solutions

One of the major initiatives that consumer advocates believe should be developed and implemented is a portal or an inventory of research that is being carried out and the results of this research. It needs to be comprehensive including work carried out by academics, governments, the private sector and consumer organizations and, just as important, the information it contains needs to be readily accessible.

Some mechanism such as communities of interest, networks or workshops that allow researchers and users of the research to collaborate and jointly discuss consumer interest research should be established in order to:

identify research gaps and needs for future targeted funding programs;
set clear criteriaand frameworks for setting research priorities; and
help researchers frame the appropriate research questions.

The Council could play a role, for example, in helping to develop communities of interest around consumer research topics that affect consumers’ rights and responsibilities. Within its limited resources, the Council would be prepared to make a start on this with the participation of Canadian academics. In fact, you would be welcome to become a member the Council to help advocate for further research on consumer issues.

The setting of priorities,for both research and action, is an issue that was frequently raised by consumer representatives. Every organization – governmental, non-governmental, academic or business – faces difficult choices about where to devote limited resources. Clearly, having a broadly based set of criteria or analytical framework will help to ensure that the choice of research initiatives is well founded.

The bottom line is that a sustainable source of funding for consumer interest research needs to be established. When thinking of funding, the first response is that it should come from government. However, I think that a broader funding partnership needs to be established that includes the private and non-profit sectors as well.