Industry committee  As I alluded to in my opening remarks, shortly after the declaration of the global pandemic, the bureau took the unprecedented step of issuing guidance to the marketplace in terms of a willingness to exercise enforcement discretion for competitor collaborations that were specifically designed to keep supply chains going so that critical goods and services could get to Canadians.

Industry committee  Sadly, this didn't come as a surprise to us. In fact, we issued a warning within days of the pandemic starting, in terms of deceptive marketing practices trying to take advantage of the pandemic: false or misleading representations of products saying they would prevent, treat or cure COVID.

Industry committee  It wasn't a situation where we were asked for input.

Industry committee  All I can say is that we weren't asked to provide input.

Industry committee  Our ability to bring cases to either the Competition Tribunal or the criminal courts via the Public Prosecution Service of Canada is obviously fundamental. We have a prosecutorial model. We've talked a bit today on the civil side about the ability to have financial sanctions that are scaled to the size of the enterprise that we're dealing with.

Industry committee  A review of sanctions is something that, obviously, came up following the Facebook resolution in Canada and was commented on extensively.

Industry committee  Madam Chair, I thank Mr. Cumming for that excellent question. This is an issue that competition agencies around the world have been grappling with, how these digital platform markets can be, to a certain extent, winner-take-all markets where the competition is for the market, not in the market.

Industry committee  Madam Chair, thanks again for the question. We haven't done a deep dive on the bill before Parliament. What I can say, though, is that there are certainly aspects in the bill that we view as positive, including giving the Office of the Privacy Commissioner greater ability to share information with the bureau, and a small amendment to the Competition Act to provide for sharing between the bureau and the Privacy Commissioner.

Industry committee  My colleague Mr. Durocher will answer that question.

Industry committee  As an enforcement agency, we co-operate and collaborate extensively with our American counterparts. We have deep relationships with them and we share information on cases, or potential cases, on a regular basis in many aspects of our enforcement work, which we believe provides a better result for Canadians and a better result on the U.S. side of the border when we are working together on these matters.

Industry committee  As I said when speaking to the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, the concern here is the slippery slope. When competitors, certainly at very senior levels, are having conversations, there is a slippery slope towards what I referred to earlier, when answering Mr. Masse's question, with respect to cartel conduct.

Industry committee  That's what we clarified to the Canadian public last Friday, that agreements between competitors with respect to things such as wage fixing and no-poach agreements are not captured by our criminal powers, as a result of 2009 amendments to the law that removed the word “purchase” from that particular section of the law.

Industry committee  I think that, for a variety of reasons, convergence of competition laws, certainly within North America, is something that would be beneficial in multiple ways, including beneficial to the business community, because they would understand that the laws they must comply with are the same or nearly the same in both Canada and the United States, so there is value there.

Industry committee  Well, that's a good question. It's not something that I have a ready answer for in terms of the various issues that might be in play with that in the provincial-federal jurisdiction and those sorts of things. As you point out, a code of conduct in the United Kingdom has been well received.

Industry committee  Yes, absolutely. Our focus day in and day out is on competition issues in Canada, doing everything we can to make the Canadian economy as competitive, healthy, vibrant and fair as we can.