Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise on Motion No. 423 as the chief opposition critic for industry.
For those who have just joined the debate and for those watching the proceedings on television, the motion reads as follows:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should consider the advisability of establishing a commission of inquiry to examine the concentration of print media in Canada.
The motion is certainly timely as we are all aware of the Southam launch of the National Post just days ago, a national paper which includes within its pages the former Financial Post . We are also aware of the impending Toronto Star takeover of the Sun Media Corporation, a merger that will give Torstar 26% of the total weekly circulation of daily newspapers in Canada.
I compliment the hon. member for Waterloo—Wellington for the impeccable timing of the motion. On the issue of timing I only hope for his sake that he owns a large block of Sun Media stock since it went up over 60% as a result of the takeover bid.
I make this remark in good humour, but there is an important point in all of this. The success of these private businesses, the profits they make, are disbursed among literally thousands of shareholders. Many of these people are average hard working, overtaxed Canadians investing in mutual funds for their retirements because the government messed up their pensions.
It should be known that all Canadians benefit from profitable industries. We should not be concerned when businesses make decisions to enhance their profits. I would be pretty worried if businesses stopped concerning themselves with profits as this would destroy the Canadian economy.
My first message as it applies to the motion is that we need not be concerned about those in the print media industry merging to improve their economies of scale and their bottom lines. We need not be concerned with the impact this may have on consumer choice.
As far as the interests of consumers are concerned it should be appreciated that companies become profitable and remain profitable by offering consumers quality goods and services at a low price. They make money only when they serve the interests of their consumers. The better they serve, the richer they become.
When companies work against the interests of consumers they lose money because they lose market share. Therefore the free market is the best corrective mechanism by which to address any alleged market coercion or manipulation. Furthermore, the House cannot support both property rights and free enterprise while proposing to create a government body that would have the power and the mandate to prevent companies from exercising their property rights freely through voluntary exchange. The motion is an attack on free enterprise and on property rights.
When speaking to Bill C-20 in the House some time ago I brought my concerns regarding the Competition Act to the attention of my colleagues. I share those concerns again so that members of the House can understand why those who understand and respect the workings of the free market cannot support the motion.
The Competition Act rests on the assumption that the government can meddle and regulate its way into a free market. In his recently published book entitled The Myths of Antitrust , author Armentano wrote:
Trades of private property are either voluntary or they are not; one cannot legislate the free market or create competition. To have a free market the government must leave the markets alone; to have the state make markets “free” is again a contradiction in terms.
I am also reminded of Nobel prize winning economist Dr. Friedman, who wrote:
A monopoly can seldom be established within a country without overt and covert government assistance in the form of a tariff or some other device.
With respect, competition and free enterprise are concepts that are not properly understood by my colleague from Waterloo-Wellington. The number of companies providing a product or service is not a reliable indicator as to the competitiveness of the market. The key to ensuing competition is removing the barriers to access and entry into the market and into that segment of the economy.
I add at this point that the television industry should be the focus of our attention. The CRTC acts as a barrier to competition. As long as no such regulatory body encroaches on the print media industry, we need not be concerned with concentration of the industry.
I believe we can learn a lesson from the banking industry that might help my colleagues understand why the motion must be rejected. The government has created an environment in Canada that has encouraged the creation of a banking oligarchy. Instead of deregulating the banking industry to allow for competition, it meddles further into the banking industry with foreign ownership restrictions.
When Canadian small businesses cannot get adequate financing for new innovations, they justify the need to create another government program called the Small Business Loans Act. We can see how one government intervention leads to many more until we are so far removed from the free market that we cannot begin to understand the potential for market based solutions to public policy problems.
Competition legislation is nothing but a bundle of contradictions. The entire purpose of being in business is to drive competitors out of business. Every entrepreneur wants to capture more and more of the market share by providing a better product at a better price than his competitor. This is called anti-competitive pricing and dumping.
Entrepreneurs eager to obey the government should not try to outdo their competitors by providing consumers a better price. They should keep their prices and services at the same levels as those of their competitors. That too is against the rules. It is called collusion.
Entrepreneurs should raise their prices far above their competitors so that they are not guilty of anti-competitive pricing or collusion. Wrong again. This is called price gouging.
Our competition laws are an unenforceable mess of contradictions. If members of the House give these laws some honest consideration, they too will come to this conclusion.
The Reform Party believes that the creation of wealth and productive jobs for Canadians is best achieved through the operations of a responsible, broadly based free enterprise system in which private property, freedom of contract and the operation of the free market are encouraged and respected.
Economic competition and the resulting prosperity that will come from it are the results of a deregulated market and cannot be achieved by government intervention. As the critic for industry I will work with the private sector to identify and remove the barriers to entry that may be limiting competition. However I will not allow the government to use its power to further meddle into the economy.
I conclude my remarks by asking members of the House to give some thought to all the benefits a vibrant and free economy has given to Canadians. I would like members of the House to look beyond big government solutions to public policy problems and to start working with the private sector to create laws and regulations in Canada that will bring us prosperity.
Once we all come to understand the importance of economic freedom, we will also come to understand why we should not be concerned with print media concentration in Canada.