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Annual Report of the Commissioner of Competition for the year ending March 31, 2002


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Statistical Data

Bureau Operations

In 2001-2002, the operating budget for the Bureau was $32.6 million including carryforward. In addition, the Bureau received $7.8 million in supplementary estimates and $4 million from the Department's reserve to meet additional operational requirements. The Bureau also generated $7.5 million in fees. A major portion of the budget, $26 million was allocated to salaries for 383 authorized full time staff, consisting of 23 executives, 14 economists, 220 commerce officers, and 126 employees carrying out informatics, administrative services and support functions.

The Bureau has administrative responsibility for collecting fines imposed by the courts. During 2001-2002, $3,001,000 in fines was imposed.

Table 1

**Selected activities of the Competition Bureau**
Number of complaints, examinations, inquiries and advisory opinions	1998-99	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02
Total complaints Competition Act	10,009	13,803	16,570	13,871
Total Complaints (Textile Labelling Act, Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act, and the Precious Metals Marking Act)	477	n.a.	135	206
Examinations (Competition Act)	601	655	711	694
Examinations/Inspections (Labelling Acts)	2,012	2,316	433	184
Applications for inquiries under section 9	11	13	8	8
Inquiries in progress at year end	48	48	35	54
Written advisory opinions	75	51	40	26
Disposition of inquiries
Inquiries formally discontinued	21	18	11	5
Matters referred to the Attorney General of Canada	8	12	14	10
Matters referred where further action is not warranted	0	1	0	1
Prosecutions or other proceedings commenced	8	9	14	13
Applications to the Competition Tribunal	5	4	6	10
-Mergers	5	3	3	7
-Other reviewable practices	0	1	3	3
Representatives before regulatory bodies	15	7	13	5

Table 2

**Civil Matters — selected activities**
Number of complaints, examinations and inquiries	1998-99	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02
Total complaints/information contacts	819	613	618	1,260
Examinations commenced (two or more days of review)	29	43	43	42
Applications for inquiries under section 9 (six resident application to the Commissioner for inquiry)	4	5	4	4
Inquiries in progress at year end	8	10	11	12
Written advisory opinions	0	0	3	4
Disposition of inquiries
Inquiries resolved by alternative case resolution	3	5	3	2
Applications to the Competition Tribunal	0	0	1	1
Discontinuances	6	5	6	5
Interventions
CRTC	8	2	4	2
Provincial	5	3	3	2
CITT	1	1	3	0
Policy work	1	1	3	1

Table 3

**Criminal matters — selected activities**
Number of complaints, examinations and inquiries	1998-99	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02
Total complaints/information requests	937	1,945	966	453
Examinations commenced	49	37	57	26
Applications for inquiries under section 9	7	4	3	3
Inquiries in progress at year end	26	22	24	26
Disposition of inquiries
Matters referred to the Attorney General of Canada	7	9	8	5
Matters where charges were laid	6	6	8	3
Matters where Attorney General declined to proceed or withdrew charges (may include matters referred during previous years)	0	1	0	0
Matters before the Courts (may include matters referred during previous years)	6	7	8	7
Disposition of prosecutions (findings of guilt, guilty pleas, acquittals, stay of proceedings, orders of prohibition - may include matters referred during previous years)	16	21	14	3
Other activities
Examinations resolved by information contacts	11	6	12	5
Written advisory opinions	8	7	2	1
Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) requests	0	1	1	8
Searches	5	5	5	5

Table 4

**Merger Examinations**
	1998-99	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02
Examinations Commenced Includes notifiable transactions, advance ruling certificates and examinations commenced for other reasons. Total number of notifiable transactions together with advance ruling certificate request exceeds the number of examinations commenced because in many instances a long or short form notification was filed along with a request for an advance ruling certificate	309	361	373	328
Notifiable Transactions	191	198	206	128
Advance Ruling Certificate Requests	174	209	255	243
Examinations Concluded¹
Posing No Issue Under the Act	346	392	381	338
With Pre-closing Restructuring	0	2	0	3
With Post-closing Restructuring and Undertakings	1	6	5	2
With Consent Orders	2	1	1	2
Through Contested Proceedings²	2	0	0	0
Parties Abandoned Proposed Mergers in Whole or in Part as a Direct Result of the Commissioner's Position	3	1	2	0
Advisory Opinions Issued (included in Total Examinations Concluded)	7	3	2	2
Total Examinations Concluded Includes advance ruling certificates and advisory opinions issued and matters that have been concluded or withdrawn before the Competition Tribunal.	302	338	389	345
Advance Ruling Certificates Issued (included in Total Examinations Concluded)	186	128	215	217
Examinations Ongoing at Year-end	44	67	54	13
Total Examinations During the Year	346	405	443	358
Applications and Notices of Application Before the Tribunal and the Courts
Ongoing at Year-end³	1	1	2⁴	5
Concluded⁵ or Withdrawn	4	2	1	2

^{¹If a transaction has a notification as well as an advance
ruling certificate, it is only counted once.

²Year completed.

³Includes the merger of United Grain Growers Limited and
Agricore
Cooperative Ltd. The Bureau filed two applications with the Competition
Tribunal,
a consent order on the prairie elevator portion of the proposed merger
(December
7, 2001) and one on the acquisition of the port terminal assets of Agricore
in Vancouver (January 2, 2002). The transaction is only counted once in the
Ongoing at Year-end row.

⁴The Commissioner of Competition v. Superior Propane Inc.
et al. was concluded in the 1999–2000 fiscal year. In 2000-2001, the
Federal Court of Appeal referred the case back to the Competition
Tribunal.

⁵Concluded means that the Competition Tribunal or the courts
issued an order or decision, and there were no further appeals.}

**Breakdown of Mergers by Year, 1998-2002**
Business Line	1998-99	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02
Pre-merger Notification Filing*	109	92	73	59
Advance Ruling Certificate Request	226	273	255	243
Other Examinations	26	60	45	26
Total Mergers	361	425	373	328
Asset Securitizations**	52	64	0	0
Total Minus Securitizations	309	361	373	328

^{^* Excludes notification when an advance ruling certificate
was requested.

^** In January 2000, an exemption for notification of asset
securitization transactions came into force. As a result, asset
securitizations
have been removed for comparative purposes.}

Note: The figures in the Total Mergers row represent the total number of examinations commenced during the fiscal year.

Table 5

**Fair Business Practices Branch — selected activities**
Number of complaints, examinations and inquiries	1998-99	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02
Total complaints received (Competition Act)	8,253	11,240	14,851	12,158
Total complaints received (Labelling Acts)	477	n.a.	135	206
Applications for inquiries under section 9	0	4	1	1
Inquiries commenced	4	13	12	16
Disposition of inquiries
Completed examinations/inquiries (Competition Act)	163	140	238	295
Completed examinations/inspections (Labelling Statutes)	2,012	2,316	433	184
Undertakings (terms signed off) Competition Act	3	9	3	0
Undertakings (Labelling Statutes)			122	124
Inquiries formally discontinued
Cases involving undertakings	3	2	1	0
Inquiry discontinued - no further action required	4	2	1	1
Matters referred to the Attorney General of Canada	1	3	6	5
Matters in which charges been laid (may include matters referred previous years)	2	2	6	6
Prosecutions concluded (May include matters referred during previous years)
convictions	5	2	3	3
non-convictions	0	1	0	0
Application to the Competition Tribunal (ConsentOrders Filed)
Consent Orders Filed	n.a.	1	2	1
Contested Applications	n.a.	0	1	1
Request advisory opinions (written opinions given)
Advisory Opinion Provided	40	39	33	19
Total Fines ($)
Competition Act	$1,402,500	$1,190,000	$1,000,000	$95,000
Labelling Acts			$3,000	$7,500