I'll start, and my bureau colleagues may want to intervene.
One of the reasons we introduced the joint venture provisions in Bill C-49 as they are now is that currently joint ventures in this country actually don't have any set timelines necessarily, because they are subject to the commercial collaboration provisions of the Competition Act, which the commissioner of competition can initiate at any time and invoke a review of at any time. That does not allow for any certainty or predictability for proponents unless it's a notifiable merger.
We've taken the merger provisions that currently live under the CTA, which allow for a public interest consideration, and we have actually made those timelines more explicit and shorter. If I take the merger timelines, for instance, it's important to think about the time that leads up to a merger notice being given, but essentially you can take that same time frame and, say, 42 days to inform parties, and, where there is public interest, another 150, and then there's a TBD on all of the steps that follow thereafter.
With respect to the joint venture provisions, one point I want to clarify is that the 120 days for the commissioner of competition are parallel to the 150 days for the minister of transport. Really, in this particular set of time frames we are trying to balance providing predictability and certainty with the need for a robust competition consideration by the commissioner of competition and a robust public interest consideration by the minister of transport. We actually think this particular measure right now allows for an international competitiveness that Canada currently can enjoy like its other comparators.
To your point on the two-year minimum immunity period, I would stress that it's a two-year minimum period, so unless it is otherwise stipulated in the terms and conditions, joint ventures will not have an expiry date and will continue to operate in perpetuity while being monitored annually. That being said, we believe the two-year minimum is sufficient. It's worth noting that in other jurisdictions, such as the United States, antitrust immunity can be reconsidered at any point by the transportation authorities, and so there is actually no certainty to pardon. Therefore, in the joint venture provisions in Bill C-49, we've tried to provide for a balanced and thoughtful consideration of competition and public interest considerations and as much predictability and certainty to parties as possible while ensuring that at all times there's due process.