Annual Report of the Commissioner of Competition for the year ending March 31, 1999

Message From the Commissioner

This has been a year of unprecedented activity for the Competition Bureau. It has been a challenging and successful year - a year of firsts.

This year we were confronted with more merger proposals than ever before. The Bureau reviewed mergers in sectors ranging from energy and media to retailing, as well as the two largest proposed mergers in Canadian history among four of Canada's major banks: the Royal Bank of Canada and the Bank of Montreal, and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and the Toronto-Dominion Bank.

The petroleum sector has been, and continues to be, a priority for the Bureau. This past year, the Bureau's concerns about a proposed merger between two petroleum companies, Petro-Canada and Ultramar, resulted in the companies deciding to discontinue their joint venture. The investigation into this proposed merger found that it would have led to a substantial lessening or prevention of competition and harmed consumers in Atlantic Canada and Quebec.

This year, we continued our work based on the approach we call the conformity continuum, a consolidation of resources and tools we use to promote conformity. Using this approach, we have initiated education-based strategies aimed at discouraging anti-competitive behaviour while continuing to use the full force of our Acts in situations of serious non-compliance. On the enforcement side, record fines for conspiracy and the first prison terms ever for deceptive telemarketers resulted from Bureau investigations.

To promote awareness of labelling, accreditation and general competition issues, we issued bulletins and conducted information sessions with industry and consumer groups. Specifically, we consulted the jewellery industry on accreditation programs, the software industry on establishing a code of ethics, and pet food makers on the issue of a voluntary code for labelling their products.

The Bureau made numerous interventions before regulatory bodies, notably before the Canadian International Trade Tribunal in the baby food case, and to the Ontario government concerning electricity deregulation. As well, we continued to uphold our international obligations through the promotion, development and, when necessary, enforcement of tenable competition law and policies.

As part of our effort to provide timely information, our Web site has become our key tool for disseminating information to our industry stakeholders, lawyers, the media and the public. We also solicited feedback via the Web site from our stakeholder community on our legislative and policy changes, as well as on the implementation of our user-fee program.

On the legislative front, the Bureau amendments to the Competition Act came into force, giving us more powerful tools to fight anti-competitive behaviour. We also commenced a revamping of our technological infrastructure to streamline our management systems.

In short, we have had a successful year. We have met our challenges, and our accomplishments are thanks to the hard work of a dedicated and professional staff. You will find the activities of the past year detailed in this report.

Konrad von Finckenstein, Q.C.