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Brown noted the review of the payday loan industry is coinciding with tough economic times battering Alberta, triggered by a precipitous drop in oil prices.

“It is the working poor that get targeted by the businesses, so in the downturn you would expect more people to access payday loans, especially if they have lost their jobs or come into some economic insecurity,” he said Friday.

“So the downturn is really a boon for these types of businesses. They certainly cluster in low-income neighbourhoods in Calgary. So for a lot of people, that might be all they see for a lender.”

Officials with payday loan companies contacted by the Herald on Friday were not available for comment. The Canadian Payday Loan Association, which represents 20 licensed payday loan companies across the country, said it had no one available to speak on the provincial review.

But Stan Keyes, who until recently was president of the association, told the Herald in March that the changes advocated by Momentum would damage an industry that provides a service that banks and credit unions don’t.

“It certainly would make it even more difficult for the industry to provide the small-sum, short-term credit that’s in demand in Alberta,” maintained Keyes, who said payday lenders operate on slim margins.

The province isn’t the only level of government looking at the payday loan industry.

A bylaw that would require a minimum 400 metre separation between payday loan operations to avoid “clustering” is working its way toward Calgary city council.

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot, one of the bylaw’s proponents, said that while the city would be able to impose rules on new operations, it needs more autonomy from the province to be able to easily change land use rules when an existing payday lender shuts down.

“It would certainly be beneficial for us that if one closes down we had the ability to say, ‘At this location, we won’t allow another one to go back in,’ ” he said. “There are some that have shut down and been replaced by another, a different company, just overnight.”

With files from Trevor Howell, Calgary Herald

jwood@calgaryherald.com