Canada’s Office of Consumer Affairs announced the 21 projects that will be funded under its program for consumer organizations for the 2023-25 period.

The Contributions Program for Non-Profit Consumer and Voluntary Organizations is designed to provide funding for consumer advocacy groups to conduct research projects on current or emerging consumer trends or development projects to support organizational capacity. For 2023-25, 14 research projects and seven development projects were selected for a total of about $3.38 million.

The 14 research projects selected from the applicants included three projects each from Options consommateurs (OC) and Consumers Council of Canada, two from Equiterre, and one each from six other organizations. The OC projects will study the consequences of labour shortages on consumer rights and services, the impact on tipping for service since COVID-19, and finance influencers. Consumers Council’s projects will study the willingness of homeowners to address climate change risk, the use of ‘name and shame’ as a tool of regulatory enforcement, and refresh the Council’s 2021 research on ‘The On-Demand Consumer’, reflecting post-COVID marketplace changes.

Topics covered in the other research reports include automobile shortages, housing discrimination, sustainable fashion, custom duties and the impact of new internet technologies on vehicle safety, privacy and the right to repair.

While each research project included a brief description, no information is provided publicly on the objectives of the seven development projects awarded. All of the OC projects received within $1,000 of the program’s maximum $200,000 in funding, and so it received the largest overall funding. This program is a substantial source of funding to Canadian consumer organizations and is operated by the Office of Consumer Affairs under Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.