Transport committee  I'll start in terms of our specific investigations. Unfortunately, to the extent that a U.S. carrier has expressed to us their interest or desire to enter, that is not something we can share due to our confidentiality obligations.

Transport committee  I'm not completely familiar with it, but there is a process in the CTA to seek redress when there's concern that the terms or conditions have been breached. I believe it involves going to court.

Transport committee  Yes, that was was a relevant consideration in our two most recent reviews. Just to remind you again, in a merger review we're looking at competition on specific OD pairs. In the Air Canada and the WestJet reviews, it was competition for vacation packages, not just the flight. In the context of those reviews, we looked at OD pairs and whether border airports might be substitutes for passengers.

Transport committee  Yes, there was. They proposed to merge. The Minister of Transport commenced a public interest review. The commissioner provided a report that identified significant competition concerns on 83 routes to either sun destinations or Europe. Subsequent to that, the parties proposed certain measures to address those competition concerns.

Transport committee  I can start on the enforcement side. Those rules are not something that we would look into unless they constituted a barrier to entry. There aren't any specific rules that are identified in our reports that would be different among carriers of different sizes.

Transport committee  It's not something we would do in the normal course of an investigation, reaching out to them to ask them why they failed, but that kind of interaction with them is certainly something that could be part of a market study.

Transport committee  I don't think so. The enforcement part of the act is geared toward anti-competitive behaviour or anti-competitive mergers, so unless they fit into one of those buckets, we wouldn't be interfering with or investigating what they're doing.

Transport committee  We have a very well-established process that we use when we identify competition concerns to ensure that we resolve those concerns. Typically, we're able to negotiate a resolution with the parties that we feel addresses the concerns through structural means, such as by divesting assets or parts of a business.

Transport committee  To clarify, the commissioner's role in that instance is to bring an application to the tribunal. He is not an adjudicator. We filed an application seeking to block that transaction, but, at the end of the day, it's the Competition Tribunal's decision. Globally, there are different models in terms of how competition agencies are run.

Transport committee  Those are significant amendments that have been proposed. With respect to competition in the airline sector, there really won't be much of an effect because of the process that is currently in place under the Canada Transportation Act where we're feeding into the minister's decision.

Transport committee  I'll start on the merger side, on the enforcement side. There, we're looking at the potential anti-competitive effects of a particular transaction. Generally, you're looking at whether there will be an increase in market share that exceeds 30% or 35%. That's what is set out in our guidelines, but that's specific to each market.

Transport committee  No.

Transport committee  It wouldn't be in our normal course to track the outcomes of something like that. It could be done in a.... Sometimes we do what we call ex post studies of remedies, looking at whether the measures that were taken to ensure that the market remained competitive were effective.

Transport committee  I think what you're describing is the current process, where the commissioner is providing his report to the Minister of Transport, who is also getting a report with respect to public interest issues as they relate to national transportation. The commissioner's role is limited in these kinds of circumstances to providing that report on the competition concerns.

Transport committee  I guess there are sort of two streams to answering that question. To the extent that there is either a merger or conduct that is potentially contrary to the Competition Act, we can commence an investigation, so that's how we would look at it from the enforcement side.