Industry committee  I'm not someone who's generally in favour of the invasive regulation of particular sectors. There are cases where we might need regulatory oversight, like if we're allocating spectrum, but for most industries, I prefer to let competition policy do the work. We need more information about the status of challenges in, say, the grocery sector.

Industry committee  I don't like excessive profits taxes. They just discourage investment. If there is a problem such that grocers are making exorbitant profits, we need to look for a market solution to that. Hopefully, it will attract entry, for example, and that may happen, but I don't like the idea of special taxes for select industries.

Industry committee  That is a very important question and has been probably for a few decades. People have recognized that international mergers pose significant challenges for domestic competition authorities, particularly in smaller jurisdictions. If you're the United States or Europe, you may have enough clout to deal with the mergers as you wish.

Industry committee  That was a deliberate decision on their part. I don't have any kind of inside information on that. I haven't really studied it. A lot of us are still trying to digest that report. It was an amazingly informative and useful document they produced, but it's just the start of a discussion about concentration and market performance in Canada.

Industry committee  Yes, thank you. I'm supportive of the last comments. I think we've taken some very good steps. There are challenges in knowing what the source of high grocery prices is. You've heard all the stories about supply chain disruptions and people pointing to the fact that prices are higher around the world.

Industry committee  That's a tough question. You noticed that the bureau itself in the report didn't really segment out industries.

Industry committee  Thank you for that. It's quite an industry now for competition agencies around the world. After a law has been implemented, they have to come out with a bunch of guidelines to help explain to businesses how at least the authority plans to implement the law until courts tell it to do something differently.

Industry committee  I'll jump in quickly to say that I did speak to that. I feel, for the same reasons as Professor Iacobucci, that market shares are very weak indicators of market power. They're useful. They belong in guidelines but not the law. I'll just leave it there.

Industry committee  I'd be happy to add a couple of words on that. I agree with what Professor Quaid said. I also want to hearken back to what the commissioner said when he spoke to you. As ambitious as this reform process has been with the number of changes that have come forward—many of them good—there may be a bit of a missed opportunity.

Industry committee  I agree with everything you said. For reasons that Professor Iacobucci articulated in his opening remarks, market definition is a very messy enterprise. Reasonable people can disagree about how to define the market, and once you've done that, you're going to get different answers about market share and concentration.

Industry committee  Thank you to the committee for this invitation to appear before you to talk about something that I care a lot about, which is Canadian competition policy. I am an economist and professor emeritus at the Sauder School of Business. I've been working, studying, researching and teaching in the area of competition policy for about 40 years.