Industry committee  Because the way supply and demand works, one anticipates what one can obtain in the marketplace where there's high demand, and prices go up when there's more demand.

Industry committee  Well, we look into whether we think there's anti-competitive behaviour as opposed to whether they're taking appropriate pricing action. As I said, our act doesn't outlaw people from making a profit. What it says is that they can't engage in anti-competitive behaviour. That would

Industry committee  I don't know if Richard has anything to add, but quite frankly, I think that's probably something where you'll find significantly more expertise on the following panel than ourselves. We really are following pricing in the marketplace. Richard.

Industry committee  Again, I think that's probably a question our colleagues are more suited to answer. It doesn't really deal with the anti-competitive acts that we might see in the refining industry. We're very focused on whether we think these folks are getting together and somehow reaching an ag

Industry committee  Creating such a bureau would enable us to study the market, because the legislation has other gaps, as mentioned in the current committee's reports. We could do market studies, especially in the oil industry, where there is a great deal of public information, like the studies tha

Industry committee  Yes, sir.

Industry committee  All right. On your first question in respect to the shortage of gas and the increase in price, we actually see it as a normal response in the marketplace. When there's a shortage of supply, the price goes up. It's supply and demand. On the concern about trying to introduce cont

Industry committee  To begin with, you talked about a reasonable profit. As I explained, it is not up to us to set prices or determine what constitutes a reasonable profit. We can do this type of analysis to see whether or not there is a reason for suspecting anti-competitive behaviour. Just because

Industry committee  We analyze whether or not the purpose of the concentration is to obtain dominance and whether or not competition in the market has declined. We have noted that the number of refineries has decreased, but that does not mean that we are finished with companies that may, according t

Industry committee  For sure—it's a very interesting question. Two weeks ago I was at the meeting of the International Competition Network, which is the group that represents 100 antitrust agencies around the world, and I'm now the chair of the steering group. We have lots of chances to get togethe

Industry committee  I think it's important, and I'm going to try not to use up your six minutes, although I would like to provide a fairly comprehensive answer to this question, because it does come up fairly frequently, and I'd like to try to be as clear as I can about the types of behaviour that w

Industry committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, for inviting us here today to participate in your study into gasoline prices and refining margins. As you mentioned, Mr. Chair, I'm accompanied today by Richard Taylor, who's deputy commissioner for the civil matter

Industry committee  We came up the middle on that, in a sense. I think I've said several times that the market share tests are useful, but they don't determine the matter in all cases. We don't like market share; we wouldn't agree with the 25% test. What we're looking at instead is whether there is

Industry committee  Our study of the telecommunications market shows that it is a very dynamic market. We are no longer dealing just with the telecommunications market. As Mr. French said, there is a steady growth of markets with matching services. Thus, nothing guarantees that telephone companies c

Industry committee  I would be careful with such comparisons. We made a few comparisons. It is difficult to make them, especially because we are dealing with a set of services. But if we compare public statistics, you are surely right about the comparison with the United States, but not with regard