Good morning, and thank you. My name is Kaylie Tiessen. I'm an economist and policy analyst. I work in the research department at Unifor.
Unifor represents 315,000 members across the country, including thousands who have been affected by decisions made by the Competition Bureau, even just in the last few years.
The last time Unifor appeared before this committee to discuss competition in Canada was July 6 of last year. You were investigating the potential collusion of three grocery giants when they all cancelled pandemic pay on the same day. The results of your study revealed that Canada's Competition Bureau is ill equipped to protect Canada's economy from many anti-competitive acts, including those that affect workers, and that's what I will be addressing today.
Unifor members have been directly affected by at least four of the Competition Bureau's recent investigations: the Air Canada-Transat A.T. merger, the investigation into Torstar and Postmedia newspaper closures, the current investigation into the proposed acquisition of Shaw by Rogers, and the accusations of wage fixing at Canada's grocery giants, which I just mentioned.
In each of the cases, the effect on workers could have been positive or it could have been negative, but in all cases the Competition Bureau had limited capacity and political will to investigate the impact those mergers or other firm behaviours could have on workers. The most blatant example is the accusations of collusion in wage fixing to cancel pandemic pay.
As its rationale in declining to investigate, the Bureau released a statement on the application of the Competition Act to no-poaching, wage-fixing and other so-called “buy-side” agreements that involve the purchase of a product or service. That statement acknowledged that wage-fixing agreements can have anti-competitive effects in the labour market, and they raise serious competition issues. The same document, though, also states that the bureau cannot investigate companies for these actions under the criminal provisions.
This is the result of a change to the Competition Act in 2009 that removed the word “purchase” from section 45 of the Act. Unifor is recommending that change be reversed. That's our first recommendation.
Another issue I would like to address is the bureau's failure to use the powers at its disposal to investigate the impact of mergers on jobs. A growing body of research shows how a firm may develop outsized power to set wages within the labour market. This is sometimes called monopsony power.
We know that unionization acts as a countervailing power in a monopsony situation, but the government should also be creating better conditions to encourage unionization, and Canada needs additional tools to ensure that competition policy drives healthy outcomes for working people.
The bureau should develop specific merger enforcement guidelines to assess a merger's impact on wages, working conditions and whether or not the number of jobs decreases as a result of the merger. That's our second recommendation.
I called the bureau directly on this in the last couple of years, asking where I should direct my questions. The customer service representative who took my call had no idea. Where should I ask these questions about the effects on workers? They said they didn't know. There was nowhere to send me. That was a bit baffling, and that needs to be rectified.
Next, I would like to address the efficiencies defence. First, it should be eliminated, and second, the bureau and, frankly, the Canadian government and all of us in general should adopt a broader definition of efficiency that considers the actions we should take or avoid to create a fair and more equitable society.
Currently, the bureau and tribunal use this narrow definition, or a definition that focuses only on lower costs or increased savings and profit as a gold standard in efficiency. That ends up valuing corporations over people, and we need to change that. This approach is unfair and harmful to workers, and it undermines the public good.
Finally, my last point, the administrative penalties provided for in the act are minuscule compared to the balance sheets of many large corporations. In my opinion, this means they are at risk of just becoming the cost of doing business, a situation the bureau has stated it wants to avoid.
Our members are directly affected by Canada's competition policies every day. In our experience, the bureau lacks the power it needs to ensure that mergers do not negatively affect jobs or that firms do not collude to keep wages and working conditions low.
Thank you. I look forward to taking your questions.