Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak on behalf of the PC Party of Canada to Bill C-235.
Before I comment on the legislation itself I would like to commend the many years of research and hard work on this subject done by the member for Pickering—Ajax—Uxbridge. While I do not necessarily share his belief in the need for this legislation, I do applaud the initiative, energy and passion he has brought to this debate.
As mentioned by other members, the intent of this legislation would provide a basis for the enforcement of fair pricing between a manufacturer who sells a product at retail either directly or through an affiliate and also supplies the product to a customer who competes with the supplier at the retail level.
This bill would presumably give the customer a fair opportunity to make a similar profit. It would also provide that a supplier who attempts to coerce a customer in the establishment of a retail price or a retail marketing policy may be dealt with as having committed an anti-competitive action under the Competition Act.
While the majority of the PC caucus supported Bill C-235 at second reading, most members did so out of the spirit of fair play to allow this bill to be given broad study and scrutiny at the industry committee. During committee proceedings, having heard many reasonable objections to Bill C-235 from a variety of credible organizations, which I will outline, I opted to support the government's motion to report Bill C-235 to the House with every clause deleted.
Mr. McTeague subsequently tabled amendments at report stage to essentially restore—