Remarks by Brad Callaghan, Associate Deputy Commissioner of the Policy, Planning and Advocacy Directorate
June 4, 2026
Ottawa, Ontario
(As prepared for delivery)
Good morning, Mr. Chair and Honourable Senators. Thank you for inviting us to appear today.
My name is Brad Callaghan, and I am the Associate Deputy Commissioner of the Policy, Planning, and Advocacy Directorate at the Competition Bureau. I am joined by my colleague Shawn Hashmi, Team Lead, Competition Law Enforcement, Mergers and Monopolistic Practices Branch.
The Competition Bureau is an independent law enforcement agency tasked with protecting and promoting competition in Canada. We administer and enforce the Competition Act, a law that applies across all sectors of the economy.
To protect competition, we investigate allegations of anti-competitive conduct, including abuses of market power, price‑fixing and other cartel behaviour, and deceptive marketing practices. We also review mergers that may harm competition.
Our enforcement work is fact-driven and conduced on a case-by-case basis. We take action where appropriate to address cases where competition is harmed.
We also advocate for government policies and regulations that support competitive markets. We recognize that the Government of Canada regulates the fishing industry with a range of policy goals, including sustainability, social and economic. We have not conducted a detailed assessment of the various licensing, ownership, and operational models across Canada from the standpoint of their overall effects on competition. However, we hope to help the committee apply a competition lens to your studies.
In regulated industries, the Bureau strongly recommends that all policymakers conduct competition assessments when developing or reviewing regulations. Competition assessments help policymakers achieve their policy goals in ways that maximize the benefits of competition. To this end, the Bureau's Step-by-step Guide to Competition Assessment helps policymakers identify competition issues at an early stage so they can consider alternative regulatory approaches that allow competition to thrive.
If there are ways to make the various fishery licensing, ownership, and operational models more supportive of competition while still meeting their policy goals, we would support that. This committee is of course well-placed to bring forward observations and recommendations in this regard.
The Competition Bureau continues to be concerned with affordability issues on everyday goods, and whether competition issues are contributing to the rising price of food. We have studied retail grocery markets and continue active investigations in the retail space. But we also know that each step of the food supply chain matters for competition and we remain focused on understanding what additional issues may exist.
Before we proceed to your questions, I would note that the Competition Act requires us to conduct our investigations in private and to keep confidential the information we obtain. This means there may be limits on what we can say about specific matters, including whether certain investigations exist.
Thank you again for the opportunity to appear. We look forward to your questions.
