Industry Committee on June 6th, 2006

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Mr. Minister, do you have a quick response?

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Yes. The quick response would be that I don't know what the market price is right now. I haven't checked the newspaper. As we know, in the agreement, when market price is at a certain level, we have free trade, and when this market price is lower than the level, the provinces are going to choose. They are going to choose whether they want to have an export tax or another procedure. So it depends on the market price.

To answer your question, I don't know what the market price is today, so I'm not able to answer your question. I didn't check that today.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay, thank you very much, Mr. Julian.

We will go to Mr. McTeague, for five minutes.

[Dan McTeague, Liberal, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Mr. Chair, thank you.

That dinner offer might be on. I understand from my colleague Mr. Fontana that there are some people in his riding who build barbecues and who would certainly like to have the minister over for a roast--literally.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[Dan McTeague, Liberal, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Welcome, Mr. Minister, to our committee. I realize that this is the first time you appear before us.

We expected you to give us an overview in your opening remarks and that is not what we heard. We will ask you questions and perhaps we will be able to glean your best ideas in terms of consumers. I am very concerned about the Competition Act specifically, and I would like to ask you some questions in that regard.

Minister, consumers are robbed of millions of dollars each year as a result of either deceptive practices in marketing or anti-competitive behaviour by certain businesses. Consumers in the United States, Australia, and Europe seem to have recourse to much stronger competition law to protect them, particularly when it relates to providing something more than simply a cease and desist or an injunction--something with teeth in terms of monetary penalties. What's your plan as far as your portfolio in your new days as minister, to ensure that businesses that rip people off face meaningful, legally defendable administrative monetary penalties?

The second question would deal with consumer protection in this country as it relates to organizations that tend to advocate for consumers. Industries tend be very well organized and they receive rather generous support from governments to continue their advocacy work. We see that often with good bills meant to reform--agreed to by, for instance, your Competition Bureau-- constantly being stalled by these groups. Will your government significantly increase the support it provides for institutions that protect consumers?

Minister, this committee spent a considerable amount of time on Bill C-19, which was before the House until the government was defeated. Will you commit now to reintroducing Bill C-19 to protect consumers and to ensure we have a level playing field in Canada both for business and for consumers?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Mr. Minister.

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you for your questions.

The Canadian economy must be competitive. In order to achieve that, we must have competition legislation that is up to date. We attach great importance to having competition that complies with those principles laid out in the Competition Act. In order to be more competitive globally, businesses have to comply with this legislation. We currently, and I say currently, have no intention of revisiting the Competition Act.

[Dan McTeague, Liberal, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

That is not your intention, despite all the recommendations put forward by this committee.

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Currently, that is not one of this government's priorities. It is not our intention to revisit the Competition Act. The Competition Bureau recently began investigations on price-fixing, more specifically in the oil sector. It has been fulfilling its mandate perfectly satisfactorily. We are very pleased that the Competition Bureau can fulfil its mandate and that it does so very satisfactorily.

[Dan McTeague, Liberal, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Minister, the same Competition Bureau appeared before this very committee and stated that a reform was necessary. There has been no reform since 1986. There is a great deal of competition, and as Mr. Shipley said earlier, small businesses are becoming less profitable. Consumers are concerned because the Competition Act was [Editor's Note: Inaudible] by the oil companies. You have no intention of undertaking a reform even if your department supported the idea a few weeks ago. I find that astonishing.

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

I can't tell you anything other than what I have already said. A review of the Competition Act is not one of our priorities.

[Dan McTeague, Liberal, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Minister, have you ever looked at the Competition Act? Have you not taken the time to look at the concerns Canadians have expressed to this committee? Parties from both sides have looked at it, as well as your own provincial conservative members from Ontario who have supported this change.

Are you prepared to say you're not interested at this time? I realize it isn't part of the five priorities. Surely, Minister, you would be interested in helping protect consumers and ensuring that Canada finds itself in a competitive environment.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

You have about 15 seconds, Mr. Minister, if we could have just a very brief response.

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

A brief response would be that, yes, I read your concerns about the legislation. It's not one of our priorities right now to review this legislation. I think it's very important that your committee tells us about the patent legislation. I think it's Bill C-55.

[Dan McTeague, Liberal, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

No, I'm talking Competition Act; you're talking drug patent—

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Mr. McTeague.

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

This bill is very important also. And as I said in my note in the beginning of this appearance, it's important that this bill has to be followed. So we're going to look at that and as soon as possible come back with something.

[Dan McTeague, Liberal, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

That's very disappointing.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay.

I would just remind committee members, if we put a question, especially if we're putting substantive questions, we want to allow the minister the opportunity to respond.

Now we'll go to Mr. Carrie, for five minutes.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I wanted to thank the minister for his very thorough opening comments.

One of the points that you brought up, one of your first points, you mentioned internal trade. We've had different witnesses and we've heard how sometimes we have these interprovincial barriers that can be fairly significant. We see that the provinces, by themselves, are moving towards more of a free trade or internal trade improvements. I was wondering, what is the federal government's position on the Ontario-Quebec labour mobility agreement that has recently been signed?

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

I think it's great news, and it's good news for Canadians. This agreement is based on the same agreement that Alberta and British Columbia just signed a couple of weeks ago. So when you have that kind of agreement that permits a person to work where they want to work, it's always good news.

As a federal government, we respect the provincial jurisdiction, and in international trade I will do what I can do to speak with my colleagues and be sure that we can have other kinds of agreements like that with other provinces.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

You mentioned British Columbia and Alberta. I was wondering, why do you think these two provinces entered this agreement on their own?

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Because they have a vision. They have a vision, and what they did is an agreement based on mutual recognition. So these two provinces recognize that when you have a permit for work in Alberta, that permit can be recognized and applied in B.C. They are doing that in line with the internal trade agreement. The internal trade agreement permits that kind of agreement between provinces. So that's a very good example of the collaboration with provinces on the international trade agreement.

I just want to emphasize that if other provinces want to jump in.... What is interesting in this agreement is that other provinces can jump in this agreement, and this benefit can be applied to other provinces. So that's good news. I hope that other provinces will jump into this agreement and will benefit. I'm sure that Canadians will benefit from this kind of agreement.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

I agree with you very much, because I do think that this is the way to go; it's the common-sense way to go.

I wanted to ask you a more specific question. What do you think of using mutual recognition to further progress in improving these interprovincial trade agreements?