Industry committee  The Air Canada-Air Transat transaction was a different type of transaction from a normal merger review. Under the Canada Transportation Act, the Minister of Transport can determine if a merger involving a transportation undertaking is worthy of a public interest review. If the minister makes that determination, then the bureau's role is different.

Industry committee  That statute of limitations doesn't exist in the United States with respect to merger transactions. They can go back after a period of time and re-examine them or reopen them, and that has taken place in the United States. It's not something they do lightly, obviously, for the business community, but there is no one-year....

Industry committee  With respect to the Bell-MTS consent agreement, we monitor compliance with the provisions in the agreement—which is available to all Canadians on the Competition Tribunal's website to look at—namely, certain transitional services that Bell agreed to provide to Xplornet when it took over MTS subscribers as a result of the transaction.

Industry committee  Yes, the consent agreement, sir, or almost all of it, is public. There may be a section that's commercially sensitive and confidential, but the consent agreement is public.

Industry committee  I was suggesting, sir, that a comprehensive review and debate ought to take place in Canada with respect to our competition laws generally. I don't think perhaps going through different sections of the act today would be useful to you, sir, but I can tell you that around the world with our key trading partners, there are extensive and ongoing public policy debates about their competition laws and the ways in which they could be changed to better reflect the digital and data-driven economy that we all live in now, to consider those issues and to consider issues with respect to the standard for a merger review—for example, whether there ought to be presumptions in Canadian law with respect to mergers and parties then have to rebut those presumptions.

Industry committee  I can tell you, sir, that in the course of our merger reviews we talk to a very wide array of people—businesses, industry associations, customers, consumer groups and citizen groups—to obtain their views with respect to the transaction. We also have an online feedback form related to merger reviews.

Industry committee  Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Perhaps my colleague Mr. Durocher can comment on that particular transaction.

Industry committee  Madam Chair, an after-the-fact assessment of the Bell MTS transaction hasn't taken place. I can indicate that quite clearly. We are monitoring the compliance with the consent agreement. I should say, sir, that we simply don't have the resources to conduct after-the-fact assessments of our merger remedies.

Industry committee  What I can say is exactly what my colleague Mr. Durocher said. We apply the tests set out in the law and in the jurisprudence to our reviews, to the facts in any particular matter. We're an independent prosecutorial, law enforcement agency. We have to take cases to court and put up the evidence that aligns with the tests set out in the Competition Act and with the jurisprudence if we're looking to challenge a matter.

Industry committee  That's correct. The Federal Trade Commission, one of our counterparts in the United States, has those powers.

Industry committee  Generally speaking, we conduct our investigations, our reviews, in confidence, in private, so that we are not commenting as the investigation of any merger evolves. Once we've reached the end of our investigation and have arrived at conclusions, whatever they may be, at that point we will pursue the next steps and, potentially, there will be public commentary.

Industry committee  As I said, it's not appropriate for me to comment on the components of the Rogers-Shaw deal. What I can say is that in the past we have provided competition advice in terms of competition generally in Canada and in different sectors of our economy. Of course, we have also made, as I have already referred to, extensive submissions to the CRTC on their wireless review.

Industry committee  As I say, we did an extensive amount of work in the CRTC wireless proceedings. I should flag, as my colleague Mr. Scott has already flagged, that these matters are still before the CRTC, so I don't want to go too far. We made these submissions. They were backed by evidence, by deep economic analysis, where we retained an outside expert, so we stand by what we submitted to the CRTC in terms of competition advice.

Industry committee  Ultimately, I have the final say with respect to taking action to block or alter the merger if our review gets us to that point. That's true for all the mergers that are reviewed by the bureau. I can bring an application as the commissioner of competition to the Competition Tribunal to prevent or alter the merger as proposed, or any merger as proposed.

Industry committee  There's a statute of limitations in the Competition Act that prevents us from taking action after one year.