Federal Gag Order Unclear, Unwise
“The main problem Canadian business will face is the increased lack of certainty involved with the amendments to the Competition Act. The trifecta of ‘reverse onus’ provisions, increased private right of access to the Competition Tribunal, and the undefined notion of ‘internationally recognized methodology’ (which is non-existent) have investors in all industries pausing until they gain clarity.”
This paragraph is from my letter to Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, regarding the provisions of Bill C-59, which is supposed to be about implementing the Fall Economic Statement but includes clauses amending the Competition Act late in the 546-page bill that put constraints on the ability of business and industry to publicly discuss their environment goals and achievements.
Those constraints are supposed to reduce “greenwashing”, which is a term which refers to some companies (and perhaps governments and not-for-profits too) that overstate the value of their environmental initiatives. Not that it isn’t a useful goal to ensure citizens have quality information, but the provisions in C-59 are so vague and ill-defined that most companies will simply not discuss their environmental plans for fear of being challenged to expensive, lengthy litigation and multi-million dollar fines if found “guilty”. This is a loss of information for consumers who want to be able to evaluate what is being done for the environment.
There is no definition of what criteria will be used to ascertain “truth”, nor any reference to who will decide what is “truth”. Companies are rightfully skeptical about throwing caution to the wind.
Further, just about anybody can challenge the companies with a frivolous claim which will nonetheless need to be litigated (at great cost), while running the risk of being found guilty of undefined offenses by unknown judges.
Some people say that’s the point – to essentially threaten companies to shut up about their environmental initiatives and achievements. I challenge the government to follow their own rules, and take their own environmental claims to this kangaroo court of undefined rules and unknown judges.
This is yet another Liberal Government policy that seems explicitly designed to scare investment away from Canada, with predictable negative impacts on jobs, productivity, new industry, and resulting new tax revenue and economic activity.
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