Because it is implicit. According to the current provisions, the Competition Bureau will give its input to the minister with regard to competition. The system is meant to allow the Competition Bureau and the minister to work together in determining the public interest.
Obviously, the legislation states that public interest is the standard whereby the minister must approve transactions. Public interest is a very, very broad concept that includes, of course, the other office concerned, because competitiveness is in the public interest. Thus, to avoid redundancy, provisions were made to allow the Competition Bureau to share its expertise with the minister.
All the provisions reflect an obligation on the minister's part, after receiving the Competition Bureau's reports, to consult the Competition Bureau to make sure that there are no conflicts, or, should there be any, to see how they can be resolved.
Do we have to state that when the minister develops the factors, he will have to take public interest into account and consult the Competition Bureau? In other words, is there any need to consult the Competition Bureau? We are aware of the Competition Bureau's criteria. They are enshrined in their enabling legislation.
Now obviously, the minister will try to avoid redundancy, but it is extremely difficult to add a provision excluding any redundancy with the factors that the minister develops. The Competition Commissioner even admitted in her letter that there could be conflicts between factors considered by the minister and factors considered by the Competition Bureau. However, the process has been planned with a view to avoiding a duplication of effort by the Competition Bureau and the minister.
Thus, it is clear that the minister in developing his factors does not want to repeat the requirements established by the Competition Bureau pursuant to the Competition Act. This is why it has not been spelled out that the minister must consult the Competition Bureau, and likewise, that the Competition Bureau must not consult the minister when the minister is studying competition issues in the transportation sector. We want to keep these two procedures separate, even if they involve a great deal of collaboration.