Thank you to our witnesses for appearing. I appreciate the candour of your opening remarks and testimony.
In addition to failing to introduce market forces in grain handling in Canada by lifting the maximum revenue entitlements, thereby failing to address the underlying cause of the grain-shipping crises over the last 20 years, based on your testimony it looks like the government is also weakening the competition in another area by weakening the power of what is a law enforcement agency, the Competition Bureau.
I found it really interesting that in your opening remarks, Madam Fisher, you elaborated at length about the bureau's 2011 case where you went after Air Canada and United Airlines and their proposed joint venture, and ultimately required that they exempt 14 transborder routes from the joint venture in order to ensure greater competition for Canadian consumers and ultimately lower prices for Canadian families.
It's clear to me that the bill in front of us today weakens the bureau and weakens law enforcement by introducing a new process that would allow the minister to essentially bypass the bureau. Had the 2011 case been introduced under this proposed law, it's clear to me what would have happened. Air Canada and United Airlines would have applied directly to the minister for this new process and very likely the minister would have approved the joint venture, possibly without the exemptions for the 14 routes. That ultimately would have led to less competition and to higher prices for Canadian consumers.
I think it's safe to say that Bill C-49 weakens law enforcement. It weakens the powers of one of our premier law enforcement agencies when it comes to competition. Would you agree with that statement?