Procedure and House Affairs committee  I can't speak to what other agencies need or don't need in investigating power.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It wouldn't be appropriate for me to get into this. I'm not a lawyer. I'm not counsel for the Department of Justice. I wouldn't want to get into the legalities of “reasonable grounds to believe”, and what that means. Just to be clear on when we can start an investigation, the c

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We have used the ability to seek an order from the court to compel testimony from an individual. You're correct in saying that if we get testimony from an individual we cannot use that testimony against that person. We have used it in instances where we have documents that nee

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We do have a practice. I'll let my colleague answer that question.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Section 11 is an investigative tool. It's a way to get information to allow us to determine whether or not the act has been violated.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We use it regularly. For example, in the last fiscal year, 2013-14, we asked for and got 26 section 11 orders from—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's an investigative tool. When we do conduct an investigation, we have a lot of ways to collect information. When we go to third parties that aren't involved in the conduct that we're investigating, a lot of times asking the questions on a voluntary basis or providing informati

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'll turn it over to my colleague to answer that.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I wanted to add that's on the criminal side. We do have civil provisions in the act. In the context of the civil provisions, it is Department of Justice lawyers, not DPP lawyers, that handle our cases and litigate our cases. We do find ourselves in a different relationship, where

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We do use section 11. It is an important tool in our arsenal. We do use it.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I can only speak to what we do at the Competition Bureau and how we use section 11. Section 11 has three parts to it. Section 11(1)(a) allows the commissioner to seek from the court an order compelling somebody to provide oral testimony under oath. Section 11(1)(b) does the same

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, to go to the threshold for a section 11 order, we need to provide the court with an application. Essentially it's an affidavit setting out the grounds why we are asking for a section 11 order. There are two tests essentially: that we are under inquiry and that the target of

Procedure and House Affairs committee  So the Competition Act provides, concerning a person who provides oral testimony under section 11(1)(a), that we cannot use that information against that person. It also provides that we can't use the information under section 11(1)(c), which is the response to written questions.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's hard for me to speculate on the impact if you were to remove it. What I can tell you is that our investigations are fairly complex. They involve, oftentimes, anti-competitive conduct that impacts large swaths of the economy, and all of the tools that we have, whether it's se

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for inviting us to appear today. My name is Richard Bilodeau. I am an Assistant Deputy Commissioner in the Civil Matters Branch of the Competition Bureau. I am accompanied today by Ann Salvatore, acting assistant deputy commissioner in the criminal matters