Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise again on Bill C-20, an act to amend the Competition Act and to make consequential and related amendments to other acts.
My predecessor and colleague from Kelowna has given the bill substantial consideration and has deemed the legislation to be worthy of the support of members of this House. As the bill has been on the table since 1996, I look forward to being a part of facilitating its long overdue passage.
Given the bill's broad support within this House and among the members of the business community, I do not consider it necessary to use my full allotted speaking time.
The most important element of this legislation deals with telemarketing. It is the protection of consumers against telemarketing deception that has captured my interest in this legislation.
As telemarketing fraud is so often directed at seniors and other vulnerable members of society, it is imperative that the government act to provide the legal framework for dealing with fraudulent telemarketers.
This bill provides very clear guidelines for professional telemarketing conduct. First, telemarketers must identify who they are representing. Second, they must disclose the price of the services or products they are selling. Third, they must tell why they are calling. Without these provisions a telemarketer is given complete license to mislead the consumer.
By providing these guidelines legitimate telemarketers can be given some protection against those deceptive telemarketers whose conduct has brought their industry into disrepute. The telemarketing business in Canada is a billion dollar industry. Without adequate protection against fraud this industry will not continue to grow. Legitimate telemarketers will not continue to operate in an environment ruled by outlaws and frauds.
While I support the initiative to create a civil and criminal law framework for telemarketers, I am very dubious about the Competition Act. The Competition Act rests on the assumption that the government can meddle and regulate its way into a free market.
In his recently published book entitled
The Myths of Antitrust
author Armentano wrote that trades of private property are either voluntary or they are not. One cannot legislate the free market or create competition. To have a free market, the government must leave the markets alone. To have the state make markets free is again a contradiction of terms.
Leaving the markets alone does not mean that the government should ignore its duty to create laws that protect against fraud, for instance as Bill C-20 does with regard to telemarketing. It does not mean that the government should not work to build a criminal and civil law framework that protects private property and to ensure the integrity and sanctity of contracts. That is exactly the role that government should play in a free economy.
Only if the government entrenches property rights in the constitution will Canada's business environment strive. Only when the cost of the regulatory burden is lifted from business will new players be able to enter the market, creating more competition. Only when the banking industry is deregulated will new and innovative companies be able to find the financing and the challenge those companies with substantial market share. Only when the tax burden is reduced will companies think of innovating and expanding.
These are some of the very fundamental problems that must be addressed if Canada is going to foster a competitive marketplace. These problems should be addressed before the government creates more cumbersome and costly regulations.
I am reminded of the Nobel prize winning economist Dr. Friedman who wrote that a monopoly can seldom be established within a country without overt and covert government assistance in the form or a tariff or some other device.
This government is a disease on the economy masquerading as its own cure. It is the cause of uncompetitive markets, not the solution. For instance, the government has created an environment in Canada that has encouraged the creation of a banking oligarchy. Instead of deregulating the banking industry to allow for competition, it meddles further into the banking industry with the Competition Act.
When Canadian small businesses cannot get adequate funding for new innovations that will foster competition the government justifies the need to create another government program called the Small Business Loans Act. We can see how one government intervention leads to many more until we are so far removed from the free market that we cannot begin to understand the potential for market based solution to public policy problems.
If the government ran a house cleaning service it would bill us for air fresheners when all it needed to do was take out the trash. If our house was cold the government would subsidize the costs for new sweaters when all it needed to do was close the door and shut out the draft.
The funny thing is the minister actually expects a pat on the back every time he sprays around a little air freshener or buys a few new sweaters. I will start patting the minister on the back when he starts taking out the trash and closing the doors. I will start patting him on the back when he starts understanding the fundamentals of a strong economy.
If we examine it carefully, the mandate of the Competition Act is a little strange. The entire purpose of being in business is to drive your competitors out of business. Every entrepreneur wants to capture more and more of the market share by providing a better product at a better price than his competition. This according to the Competition Act is illegal. It is called anti-competitive pricing and dumping.
Entrepreneurs eager to obey the minister should not try to outdo their competitors by providing consumers a better price. They should keep their prices and services at the same levels as their competitors. Sorry, that too is against the rules. It is called collusion.
Entrepreneurs should raise their prices far above their competitors so that they are not guilty of anti-competitive pricing or collusion. Wrong again. It is called price gouging.
Our competition laws are an unenforceable mess of contradictions. I think if the members of this House give these laws some honest consideration, they too will come to this conclusion.
The Reform Party believes that the creation of wealth and productive jobs for Canadians is best achieved through the operations of a responsible, broadly-based, free enterprise system in which private property, freedom of contract and the operation of a free market are encouraged and respected.
Economic competition and the resulting prosperity will come only as a result of a deregulated market and cannot be achieved by government intervention.
As the critic for industry, I will be working with the private sector to identify those obstacles to business being successful and will not let this government continue to get the fundamentals wrong with impugnity.
The minister will tell us that he is just trying to protect Canadian consumers. This is simply not true. The minister refused to remove the 6% tariff on imported automobiles and parts despite the unfair burden this places on Canadian families.
He has helped to create a regulatory burden in Canada that costs the equivalent of 12% of our GDP. That is money that comes directly out of the pockets of average Canadians in the form of higher prices for goods and services. The minister is an old friend of the Canadian consumer.
I would also like to touch briefly on the amendments to merger regulations. Again, while I question the legitimacy of the Competition Act as it currently stands, I do support this bill insofar as it simplifies the process by which uncomplicated mergers can be processed.
This aspect of Bill C-20 makes a bad piece of legislation better and it therefore has my qualified support. In fact, Bill C-20 achieves its goal of working to modernize the Competition Act. I think this should be the starting point for reforming the act rather than an end point.
I would like to conclude my remarks by reminding this House that there are real people outside these walls who are affected by what we do. There are consequences, seen and unseen, that these people will have to contend with if we do not engage in thorough and thoughtful debate.
It is the standard of living of Canadians that I will keep in mind throughout my term as opposition critic for industry. I will never remain silent while this government uses the pay cheques of Canadians to play politics. I will never remain silent while this government solely creates an environment in Canada that is stifling and suffocating for small and large businesses.
Bill C-20 makes some very important amendments to the Competition Act and, while I have some very serious concerns with the act itself, the amendments put forth in this legislation deserve our support.