Parliamentary Hearings Suspended on Canada's Competition Act Amendments (Bill C-19)
In a surprising turn of events, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology voted on December 2, 2004 to suspend further discussion of Bill C-19, An Act to Amend the Competition Act and to Make Consequential Amendments to Other Acts, for an indefinite period. The Committee had only recently commenced hearings concerning Bill C-19, the Government bill proposing important changes to the abuse of dominance, pricing and misleading advertising provisions of the Act, among others (see the November, 2004 issue of The Competitor for details).
The Committee had already heard from several witnesses, including the Commissioner of Competition, Sheridan Scott, as well as representatives from various business and lawyers' groups including the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the Competition Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association, and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Several other witnesses were scheduled to be heard, but their appearance has been postponed, along with further discussion of the bill.
The reason for the suspension actually has little to do with the bill itself ; an NDP Committee member proposed the motion out of frustration with apparent delays on the part of the Government to introduce promised legislation to make corporate fines and "administrative monetary penalties" (such as those proposed in Bill C-19 for abuse of dominance and for civil misleading advertising) non-deductible for income tax purposes. The other opposition MPs voted - for various reasons - with the NDP to pass the motion to suspend consideration of the bill, defeating the Liberal MPs in the process (most of whom then left the hearings).
The upshot is that Committee hearings were suspended a week earlier than they would otherwise have been for the holiday season. The Committee will resume its work in January when Parliament reconvenes, but when it will continue its consideration of Bill C-19 remains to be seen. It is likely only a question of time before deliberations resume, but the events of December 2 showed that with a minority government "anything can happen."
