Industry and Technology committee  Absolutely. It's a very serious concern to all Canadians now, and it has been for some time. We saw in 2023 that grocery prices were rising faster than they had been in 40 years. In our grocery market study report, where we did a deep dive on what was really going on and what the competition issues were in the grocery sector, one of the findings we made, and also what we heard from people we spoke to, was that independents, or smaller grocery stores, were finding it harder to compete.

Industry and Technology committee  I'm sorry.

Industry and Technology committee  Thank you. It's a very important question. That centres generally on our abuse of dominance investigations, where big companies are using anti-competitive conduct to try to squeeze out or kill other competitors. Obviously, we have active investigations in that area, but it's also an issue where we get a lot of complaints and we have only a limited amount of resources to advance those investigations.

Industry and Technology committee  I'm sorry.

Industry and Technology committee  That's our new area that we're looking into. We are doing this all the time at different levels of government all across the country on different subjects, as much as our resources allow, and as much as Mr. Durocher's team has capacity to take on advocacy projects to advocate for more competition in the Canadian economy, because we desperately need it.

Industry and Technology committee  Mr. Chair, I want to thank the member for his question. This is an issue that, as the honourable member points out, the bureau is very active in. As the honourable member points out, we have three active public investigations into large digital platforms. As I said in my opening statement, we have initiated a lawsuit against Google at the tribunal.

Industry and Technology committee  First, to go back to your previous subject, you asked about ongoing investigations in terms of groceries. We are continuing our investigation into bread price-fixing where Canada Bread pleaded guilty in the summer of 2023, leading to a $50-million fine for price-fixing with Weston bread.

Industry and Technology committee  I have lots to say on that. What I'm going to do is ask Mr. Durocher, who is the lead of our market study into passenger airline competition in Canada, to provide his evidence-based thoughts.

Industry and Technology committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, I apologize. I'll respond in English, if that's okay. This was a very important change as well, giving us the power, when we're conducting what we call market studies, to look at competition in a whole sector of the economy and see what the competition issues are in that sector.

Industry and Technology committee  That was Bill C-56 as well, which—and this is a very important point for grocery competition—effectively created a provision where the bureau could pursue agreements not between competitors. I think Minister Champagne even talked about it in the House of Commons when he came to speak to it, or perhaps it was in the Senate.

Industry and Technology committee  That's a very big question. There are a lot of things in Bill C-59. Let me turn to my notes. This answer could take most of the rest of our time.

Industry and Technology committee  Okay. Yes, absolutely. We are the public enforcer. That's a very important role, and we're it for Canada. Bill C-59 and earlier amendments really expanded private enforcement in Canada, allowing for private lawsuits to be brought under deceptive marketing and under civil agreements between competitors.

Industry and Technology committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for your question. I'll respond in English, because I didn't hear the whole thing. Bill C-59, as I've just said to honourable member Bains, was really quite a sea change in competition law in Canada. There were many significant developments, developments that for a long time we at the bureau had been calling for and that other people had been calling for.

Industry and Technology committee  Yes. There are various remedies that we could seek in an abuse of dominance hearing, including the ones you mentioned, but only after a trial, if there wasn't a resolution in advance of a trial.

Industry and Technology committee  As I said in the opening comments, we pursue deceptive marketing and mass marketing fraud under the Competition Act. We've had criminal prosecutions for mass marketing fraud in the last several years that resulted in significant penalties, including jail for an individual named Terry Croteau.