Annual Report 1994/95 - Our Role in Economic and Regulatory Issues

Expert economic advice on enforcement cases and related research matters is provided by Bureau economists and by visiting academics in the T.D. MacDonald Chair in Industrial Economics. At the beginning of the 1994-95 year, the Chair was held by Professor Roger Ware of Queen's University. Subsequently, Professor Abraham Hollander of the University of Montreal assumed the duties of the position.

Bureau officials worked closely with Industry Canada's Policy Sector, notably in the Departmental Assistant Deputy Ministers' Policy Coordination Group and departmental initiatives relating to: framework policies in the Asia Pacific Economic Community countries; science, technology and innovation; and the microeconomic policy agenda.

Early in the year, we completed a major comparative analysis of the role of competition policy and its relationship to other economic policies. The analysis examines the Canadian experience and the role of competition policy in key foreign jurisdictions, including the U.S., the European Union, Germany, France and Japan. The study, entitled Competition Policy As A Dimension of Economic Policy: A Comparative Perspective, was published as an Industry Canada Occasional Paper in May 1995.

Bureau commissioned research was presented at a Conference on National Competition Policy Institutions in a Global Market sponsored by Carleton University in Ottawa early in the year. The conference examined the evolving role of national competition authorities in Canada, the U.S., the European Community, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan, in response to factors such as globalization and the need for transparency and accountability in economic policy implementation.

The interaction between competition policy and intellectual property rights is of growing interest in the context of recent initiatives to foster innovation, technological diffusion and economic growth. In the U.S., the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission recently issued a joint set of Antitrust Guidelines on Intellectual Property Licensing. To ensure the currency of our knowledge we commissioned a series of studies by leading academic economists and other specialists on the subject of Competition Policy, Intellectual Property Rights and International Economic Integration. The studies, to be completed in 1995-96, are being conducted in cooperation with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and the Policy Sector of Industry Canada.

I have spoken of our involvement in regulatory issues relating to the energy sector and in relation to my intervention with the CITT. As in the past, we have focused and continue to focus on profession als and their associations. It has always been considered important where self-regulation is provided for, to ensure that the established parameters not be breached and that limited areas for competitive action be closely protected. An example would be my intervention in the case of New Brunswick Association of Real Estate Appraisers.

Information was received that the New Brunswick Association of Real Estate Appraisers was supporting a bill before the legislature of the Province of New Brunswick that would give them a statutory monopoly with broad sweeping powers for self-regulation (e.g. regulation of advertising, establishing minimum standard of tariffs of fees, entry restrictions). I made a written submission providing general and specific competition policy comments on the proposed legislation, for the review of the Standing Committee on Private Bills which was forwarded to the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly on April 5, 1994. The Standing Committee on Private Bills, in its report to the Legislative Assembly on April 12, 1994, recommended Bill 17, without any substantive amendments. The next day, the Bill was given second and third reading and on April 20th, 1994, was given Royal Assent.

Information was received that the New Brunswick Association of Real Estate Appraisers was supporting a bill before the legislature of the Province of New Brunswick that would give them a statutory monopoly with broad sweeping powers for self-regulation (e.g. regulation of advertising, establishing minimum standard of tariffs of fees, entry restrictions). I made a written submission providing general and specific competition policy comments on the proposed legislation, for the review of the Standing Committee on Private Bills which was forwarded to the Clerk of the Legislative As sembly on April 5, 1994. The Standing Committee on Private Bills, in its report to the Legislative Assembly on April 12, 1994, recommended Bill 17, without any substantive amendments. The next day, the Bill was given second and third reading and on April 20th, 1994, was given Royal Assent.