Canada’s competition watchdog has for years been criticized for letting too much slide. The problem, critics say, is that the Competition Bureau is woefully underfunded for a national law enforcement body that is expected to pursue complex and sprawling investigations against deep-pocketed corporations.
How the $96 million will be spent, and how the money will be spread across each of the five years, has not been disclosed. But assuming an even spread, that would amount to an annual increase of roughly $20 million, boosting the budget’s existing $53.7-million budget by more than a third. “They haven’t been able to keep pace and, as a result, in my view, it’s slowed down a lot of the work they’ve had to do,” said Pecman, who completed his five-year term as competition commissioner in 2018 and now works as a senior business adviser at Toronto-based law firm Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP.
For example, the bureau didn’t pursue a case last year when the country’s three top grocers simultaneously cut $2-per-hour bonuses for frontline workers. But she said she is not convinced the new money is enough to spark big changes in the way the bureau operates.
Without repatriating our economy, Trudeau, or whomever will point to a Trade Agreement or Corporate interest and just roll-over. Competition Bureau is just a waste of money, and time. Make the Slugs find their own way. cdnpoli