From Plow to Pantry: Monopoly in the Canadian Food System
"Canadians bearing the increased cost of living are familiar with the lack of competition in retail grocery, where decades of consolidation have left only a handful of national firms. But the issue of monopoly extends beyond the grocery aisle and throughout the Canadian food system.This report provides a landscape view of the competition problems across Canada’s food system, from the seeds and fertilizers used by farmers all the way to the final products Canadians bring home to their kitchen table. At each link in the chain, corporate power has a hand in shaping the markets that producers rely on for their livelihood and consumers rely on to keep their families fed. As in other markets, decades of belief in the benign nature of corporate concentration has left participants with fewer options and more powerful gatekeepers to confront.But a renewed focus on competition spurred by the cost of living crisis provides hope for a fairer and more democratic food system going forward. With new competition law tools and a broad anti-monopoly focus, Canadians can begin to turn the tide on monopoly in the food system."You can read the full report here
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59:30
The Big Fix
Geoff White, PIAC's new Executive Director and General Counsel interviews authors Denise Hearn and Vass Bednar about their eye-opening new book, "The Big Fix", which reveals the extent of Canada's inability to get competition in Canada right. Canadians pay too much, have limited market choices, little control of their shopping experience and suffer intrusive surveillance mostly due to the inability of Canadian regulators to halt mergers in areas such as food retailing, telecommunications, financial services and even veterinary services.Hearn and Bednar outline their potential solutions to address this market power, to provide a democratic and consumer-driven solution to make the market less "fixed" against Canadians. These include not only a more stringent review of mergers but also a 'whole of government' approach to competition effects on all parts of the economy. Gosh, they even discuss the prospect of structural separation in telecommunications and promotion of human flourishing as an outcome of markets. This is a refreshing and provocative discussion about putting consumers first - a goal PIAC has pursued for 40 plus years, and will pursue in the future.Buy the book from Sutherland House: https://sutherlandhousebooks.com/product/the-big-fix/
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29:00
CRTC Gone Astray - Part 2 with Monica Auer
In this, the second instalment of PIAC's series on the 'CRTC Gone Astray', Monica notes that the CRTC has abandoned data collection, and its public disclosure and has not measured results in implementing the new Online Streaming Act (which amends the Broadcasting Act), which means it is impossible to know if the requirements of the Broadcasting Act, to in part ensure the amount and quality of Canadian content (CanCon), or indeed any other objectives.Although the discussion is at times technical sounding, the principles being ignored are easy: first, making decisions based on evidence and measuring results. Second, procedural shortcuts also taken by the CRTC appear to us to undermine the rule of law and risk the spectre that "might makes right". Let's avoid that.We close with more examples of disclosure of information in CRTC telecommunications that would benefit the public if it were not kept confidential: the Rogers outage in 2022 (and the related full Report to the CRTC); the BCE (Bell) - Northwestel sale to Sixty North Unity; and a CRTC hearing on historical inmate calling rates in Ontario.
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1:09:28
CRTC Gone Astray - Part 1 with Ted Woodhead
PIAC introduces a new series of podcasts on why the CRTC has gone all funny in the last few years and why no one is laughing.Our first instalment sees Ted Woodhead, the regulatory 'face of the Rogers-Shaw merger', joining the podcast to give his very experienced take on the challenges faced by and perhaps poor choices and general inertia towards mediocrity at our national communications regulator. Ted provides many possible options to fix the problems of slowness, inconsistency and opaqueness that presently plague the Commission.PIAC could not resist asking about the Rogers-Shaw deal and Ted provides a fascinating view from the other side and a strong argument that the Competition Tribunal and Federal Court of Appeal got it right and the deal is benefitting Canadians. After that viewpoint, we turn to the issue of wireless and Internet pricing in Canada and argue about what a price increase is made of and why the Canadian market is unique, uneven, surely odd, and why ARPU is not a good competition yardstick . I guess we have the market we deserve?Like all great interviews, this one makes you think.
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1:10:47
Geist in the CRTC Machine
NOTE : apologies for a mistake about what the Broadcasting Act actually says about affordability. Also, please follow Prof. Geist's podcast: Law Bytes .We recap the inaugural appearance of Professor Michael Geist, law professor at the University of Ottawa where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law and is a member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society.Professor Geist was greeted with an incantatory acknowledgment and it just got weirder from there.We discuss this first public hearing on Canada's new version of the Broadcasting Act, which is the result of Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, which Prof. Geist appeared before Parliament on, on many occasions. It seems his reputation proceeded him, and the questioning was bizarre and perhaps revealed more about the CRTC's view of viewers and consumers than it did about Prof. Geist's opinions on how much money should go from the "online streamers" to the "Canadian broadcasting system".The public and consumer interest in broadcasting got a bit of an airing but not much progress appears to have been made despite the new Act and the raising of the consumer interest directly by Prof. Geist.Much speculation on the role such consumer concerns might play in the first of many decisions to follow ensues, including worries that the consumer interest has not been stated strongly enough. We also discuss the order of the proceeding, which can be viewed as weirdly backwards, perhaps for political reasons.Advocacy, it turns out, is hard, but hopefully worthwhile, because someone has to make sure this thing works out.
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Canada - english