Cover
Summary
BILL S-237
Explanatory Notes
First Session, Forty-second Parliament,
64-65-66 Elizabeth II, 2015-2016-2017
SENATE OF CANADA
BILL S-237
An Act to amend the Criminal Code (criminal interest rate)
FIRST READING, March 9, 2017
THE HONOURABLE SENATOR RINGUETTE
4211017
SUMMARY
This enactment amends the Criminal Code to reduce the criminal rate of interest from sixty per cent to the Bank of Canada’s overnight rate plus twenty per cent on credit advanced for certain purposes, which would include personal, family and household purposes. It maintains the criminal rate at sixty per cent on credit advanced for business or commercial purposes. However, business or commercial agreements under which the credit advanced equals or exceeds one million dollars are exempt from the offence of charging a criminal rate of interest. 
Available on the Parliament of Canada Web Site at the following address:
http://www.parl.gc.ca
1st Session, 42nd Parliament, 
64-65-66 Elizabeth II, 2015-2016-2017
SENATE OF CANADA
BILL S-237
An Act to amend the Criminal Code (criminal interest rate)
Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:
R.‍S.‍, c. C-46
1 (1) The definition criminal rate in subsection 347(2) of the Criminal Code is replaced by the following:
criminal rate means an effective annual rate of interest calculated in accordance with generally accepted actuarial practices and principles
(a) that exceeds sixty per cent on the credit advanced under an agreement or arrangement, if the credit is or is to be advanced for business or commercial purposes, or
(b) that exceeds the Bank of Canada’s overnight rate plus twenty per cent on the credit advanced under an agreement or arrangement, in any other case; (taux criminel)
(2) Subsection 347(2) of the Act is amended by adding the following in alphabetical order:
Bank of Canada’s overnight rate, in relation to credit advanced, means the Bank of Canada’s overnight rate on the day on which the agreement or arrangement under which the credit is or is to be advanced is entered into or renewed; (taux de financement à un jour de la Banque du Canada)
(3) Section 347 of the Act is amended by adding the following after subsection (2):
Meaning of business or commercial purposes
(2.‍1) For the purposes of this section, credit is advanced for business or commercial purposes if
(a) it is advanced to an organization that operates for profit or to an individual who operates a business or engages in a commercial activity for profit; and
(b) it is not advanced for personal, family or household purposes.
(4) Section 347 of the Act is amended by adding the following after subsection (8):
Application — advancing credit over $1,000,000 for business purposes
(9) This section does not apply in respect of an agreement or arrangement under which credit is or is to be advanced for business or commercial purposes if the credit advanced at any one time under the agreement or arrangement equals or exceeds one million dollars.
Coming into force
2 This Act comes into force 60 days after the day on which it receives royal assent.
Published under authority of the Senate of Canada
explanatory notes
Criminal Code
Clause 1: (1) Existing text of the definition:
criminal rate means an effective annual rate of interest calculated in accordance with generally accepted actuarial practices and principles that exceeds sixty per cent on the credit advanced under an agreement or arrangement;
(2) New.
(3) New.
(4) New.