Honourable senators, my question is for the Government Representative.

Senator Gold, there’s been good news that hopefully signals the prioritization of competition policy in Canada. This includes Budget 2022’s down payment of amendments to the Competition Act and an increase in the Competition Bureau’s budget, as well as Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s ongoing consultation on the future of competition policy and the recent appointments of two competition law experts to top positions at the CRTC — the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

This last point is the focus of my question. Anti-competitive regulations programs and policies exist across all departments and agencies from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to Transport Canada, from the CRTC to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, or OSFI. As we all know, intention is important, but capacity to implement is paramount. Therefore, outside of the Competition Bureau itself, what is the federal government’s competition policy expertise? How many of the 336,000 federal public servants have had competition policy training and are responsible for the development of pro-competitive policies in their departments?

Thank you very much, Senator Gold. Perhaps you could also add on to that the number of deputy ministers that have decided within their departments to prioritize the use of the Competition Bureau’s Competition Assessment Toolkit that has been made specifically for policy-makers and have reached out to the Competition Bureau’s competition promotion unit. Thank you.