The Competition Bureau's Logic Model

March 26, 2019

The graphic below is the Competition Bureau's logic model; it serves as an organizational roadmap to understanding the Bureau's activities, its corresponding outputs, the immediate impacts of its activities, as well as the medium and long-term impacts. The "logic" of a logic model begins at the bottom of the document and flows upwards, ending at the ultimate outcomes. For the Bureau, the ultimate outcome is to ensure Canadian businesses and consumers prosper in a competitive and innovative marketplace.

The Competition Bureau's Logic Model

Ultimate Outcomes

  • Canadian businesses and consumers prosper prosper in a competitive and innovative marketplace

Intermediate Outcomes

  • Markets are competitive, efficient, and innovative
  • Partners work with the Bureau to strengthen competition enforcement
  • Policy makers consider the implications of competition
  • Businesses are compliant with Canada's competition laws
  • Consumers make informed choices

Immediate Outcomes

  • Increased engagement with partners
  • Increased business awareness of competition compliance
  • Policymakers increasingly considers competition when making decisions
  • Increased consumer awareness of deceptive marketing conduct
  • Maintained/increased competition

Outputs

  • Collaboration
  • Outreach and Awareness
  • Enforcement of Canada's Competition and Labelling Laws
  • Advocacy
  • Culture of Excellence

Activities

  • Advocacy and Policy Support
  • Administration and enforcement of Canada's competition and labelling laws
  • Support Services
  • International and Domestic Collaboration
  • Public Affairs and Outreach
  • Promotion of Corporate Compliance Programs

Inputs

  • Primary Inputs
  • Secondary Inputs

Logic Model Narrative

The Competition Bureau Canada (the "Bureau") is a federal law-enforcement agency dedicated to preventing and correcting anti-competitive behaviour in the Canadian economy. It aims to ensure the market is a fair, open, and competitive forum for consumers and businesses to participate. By developing trusting relationships with public and external stakeholders, and by holding actors of criminal activity accountable, the Bureau contributes to Canada being an ideal platform for innovation and growth. For the Bureau to accomplish its mandate and goals, it maximizes its resources to achieve effectiveness and efficiency within and outside the organization.

Inputs

The Bureau functions through two levels of input; primary and secondary. Primary inputs are the foundational resources needed to establish the Bureau as an institution; they consist of A-base fundingFootnote 1, revenues made through merger fees, and services offered by human resources such as staffing and salary management. These inputs ensure the Bureau employs highly skilled personnel with a thorough understanding of competition law/economics, and who are able to deliver services in the most effective and efficient manner.

Secondary inputs are resources that sustain service delivery and daily operations. While internal expertise is necessary in fulfilling Bureau objectives, secondary inputs such as external expertise, whistleblowers, immunity and leniency program applicants, and complaints enable the Bureau to effectively pinpoint and investigate criminal activity and violations of the Competition Act (the Act). Organizational and daily operations are carried out by support personnel who are skilled in their respective fields. They sustain the organization through talent management and resource allocation.

Activities

The Bureau has a large span of business lines, each with a unique focus and objective.

Advocacy and Policy Support:
The Bureau promotes the advantages of competition to consumers, firms, and policy makers. This is achieved by identifying barriers to competition for specific sectors and presenting recommendations to policy makers/regulators on how regulation or de-regulation can make it difficult for businesses to emerge or compete, or factors that make it difficult for consumers to switch products or services, or to make informed choices. Examples of performance metrics related to Advocacy and Policy Support include the number of market studies completed and the number of competition advocates published. For more information on these and other measures, consult table 4.0 of the Performance Measurement and Statistics Report (PMSR).
International and Domestic Collaboration:
The Bureau participates in domestic and international collaboration by building mutually beneficial relationships with both domestic and foreign competition law agencies, regulatory organizations, law enforcement, and other institutions dedicated to enforcing and analysing competition in the economy and protecting consumers. The Bureau's collaboration with international and domestic partners are regularly tracked and measured.
Administration and Enforcement of Canada's Competition and Labelling Laws:
The Bureau has four directorates that specialize in the administration and enforcement of Canada's competition and labelling laws;
The Mergers Directorate
reviews proposed mergers to assess whether the transactions are likely to prevent or lessen competition in the marketplace. Examples of performance metrics that track the Bureau's merger enforcement can be seen in tables 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3 of the PMSR.
The Monopolistic Practices Directorate
investigates business practices that have a negative impact on competition, such as abuse of dominance or anti-competitive arrangements between competitors. Performance metric tracking for monopolistic practices activities can been seen in table 2.0 of the PMSR.
The Cartels Directorate
investigates and deters hard core cartels who commit crimes such as price-fixing, supply restrictions, or bid-rigging. Performance metric tracking for cartel activities can be seen in table 2.0 of the PMSR.
The Deceptive Marketing Practices Directorate
investigates false or misleading information and deceptive marketing practices identified under the Competition Act. The Directorate also enforces related legislation from the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act (except if it relates to food), the Precious Metals Marking Act, and the Textile Labelling Act. Performance metric tracking for deceptive marketing practices can be seen in table 2.0 of the PMSR.
Public Affairs and Outreach:
The Public Affairs and Outreach Directorate communicates the Bureau's activities and outcomes to Canadians so they are aware of the Bureau's contributions to a competitive and innovative marketplace. The Directorate also supports the Bureau's outreach activities to consumers, businesses, and stakeholders. The Bureau promotes transparency in all its operations by engaging with stakeholders through various channels.  Outreach is recorded and measured, as seen in table 5.0 of the PMSR.
Promotion of Corporate Compliance Programs:
The Compliance Unit is responsible for promoting compliance with Canada's competition and labelling laws. It evaluates corporate compliance programs, promotes compliance in the market, and helps businesses and trade associations implement corporate compliance programs. The Bureau closely monitors its promotion of corporate compliance programs to ensure the Bureau fosters a culture of compliance internally and with stakeholders.
Support Services:
The Bureau relies on support services to oversee the organization's finances, assets, information management, human resources, values and ethics, security, and procurement. These services also support the Bureau's enforcement work by providing oversight on complaints, information requests, evidence handling, and provide legal services to the Commissioner through the Department of Justice: Competition Bureau Legal Services. The number of information requests the Bureau receives, as well as metrics on other requests, can be found in table 1.0 of the PMSR.

Outputs

Advocacy:

Many of the Bureau's activities result in advocacy work that informs the public of the benefits and advantages of complying with competition regulation. The Bureau works with its partners in developing varying types of advocacy material for public consumption – these include white papers (i.e. Uber White Paper), stakeholder workshops, informal reports examining industries that may benefit from increased competition (i.e. The Competition Advocate) and market studies that examine an industry in depth to understand the competitive dynamics in that industry (i.e. FinTech Market Study). Current endeavours include the Broadband Market Study. You can view the Bureau's progress in advocacy work in table 4.0 of the PMSR and through the Advocacy Portal.

Enforcement and Shared Compliance with Canada's Competition and Labelling Laws:

Using the Competition and Compliance Framework, the Bureau employs varying enforcement, outreach, and advocacy instruments to help businesses adhere to the Act. In enforcement cases where the Bureau is faced with deliberate criminal activity that has done harm to consumers and the Canadian economy and when complete and sufficient evidence exists, cases are formally referred to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PSPC) for such action as warranted. PSPC is responsible for the decision to lay charges, prosecute and discuss resolutions, including negotiating guilty pleas. In enforcement cases where the Bureau is faced with civil conduct that contravenes the Act, where appropriate, it will attempt to negotiate a consensual resolution and settlement in response to non-compliance with the Act, which may include a formal consent agreement registered with the Competition Tribunal. However, the Bureau will not hesitate to vigorously pursue contested enforcement action when necessary through an application for an order before the Competition Tribunal. Please refer to the PMSR for examples of performance metrics (table 2.3 for non-merger enforcement resolution and outcomes, table 3.4 for merger reviews, and table 6.0 for compliance promotion activities).  The Bureau's Compliance Hub also contains information on our compliance work, including guidance on developing effective compliance programs and practical tools for businesses. Additionally, where possible, the Bureau publicly communicates the results of investigations, inquiries and merger reviews through published Position Statements.

Collaboration:

Throughout the Bureau's engagement in the competition law environment, partnerships are formed with foreign and domestic agencies. These connections are part of the communal network of competition conformity and create collaborative working relationships that are mutually beneficial for the Bureau and its partners.

On the domestic front, the Bureau partners with varying governmental agencies to ensure that competition compliance and enforcement is consistent across the Canadian economy.  These relationships are established and sustained through MOU's and lead to information sharing and enforcement support. They are part of the Bureau's efforts in ensuring Canada remains a leader in safe and prosperous economic development.

Internationally, the Bureau works with foreign counterparts to facilitate and coordinate cross-border enforcement matters. In addition, the Bureau participates in international fora such as workshops with international organizations like the OECD and capacity building initiatives with other international competition and consumer protection agencies to share and receive insight on competition issues and trends that impact the global economic landscape.

Outreach and Awareness:

The Bureau delivers outreach and awareness campaigns and initiatives to the public and stakeholders, providing valuable information to help Canadian consumers and businesses learn about anti-competitive conduct and deceptive business practices. The information delivered is timely and aims to support recipients in understanding the Competition Act, the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act (except if it relates to food), the Precious Metals Marking Act, and the Textile Labelling Act. Engagement with the public is important for the Bureau, and tracking our engagement with stakeholders helps us understand the most effective forms of outreach and awareness.  Tracked outreached efforts can be seen on the Bureau's recent advocacy work page.

Culture of Excellence:

The Bureau requires and has a highly skilled, diverse and analytical workforce that is committed and enthusiastic about its work. Being committed to building on this strength and to improving how the Bureau develops and grows its highly talented workforce; we instill and promote a Bureauwide approach to a culture of excellence. This culture of continuous improvement via training and development, recruiting and retaining, and performance managing ensures results generate the highest impact for Canadians.

Immediate Outcomes

The immediate outcomes of the Bureau's outputs are largely focused on increasing awareness and understanding of anti-competitive practices and deceptive marketing conduct. In an effort to further enhance its communication and transparency with stakeholders, the Bureau strives to keep lines of communications open. There are three stakeholder groups who we target to increase awareness and understanding of our work. Every three to five years, the Bureau will survey policy makers and regulators, consumers, and businesses to measure their understanding and awareness of the Bureau as an organization and its mandate.

Policy Makers and Regulators:
The Bureau plays a key role in keeping the marketplace competitive and innovative. To achieve this outcome, the Bureau supports policy makers and regulators in creating and amending policies that will have a positive impact on the marketplace. The Bureau ensures policy makers and regulators have a strong awareness and understanding of competition and innovation, as well as an awareness of how certain policies can impact economic growth. The Bureau will be surveying policy makers and regulators to measure their understanding and awareness of the Bureau as an organization and its mandate.
Businesses:
The Bureau recognizes the vital role businesses play in the marketplace and aims to be supportive and transparent in its communication with businesses. This will ensure firms are aware and understand the importance of complying with competition and labelling laws. The Bureau will be surveying businesses to measure their understanding and awareness of the Bureau as an organization and its mandate.
Consumers:
The Bureau keeps consumers informed on anti-competitive practices and deceptive marketing conduct occurring in the marketplace, and how criminal and civil reviewable economic activity can impact them. The Bureau focuses on informing consumers so they are aware of and understand its mandate and to protect themselves. The Bureau will be surveying consumers to measure their understanding and awareness of the Bureau as an organization and its mandate.

The Bureau works with a variety of partners in support of its enforcement work and to gain expertise in competition law and policy and innovation. The Bureau strives to increase its engagement with partners to deliver effective enforcement outcomes and increase understanding of the marketplace. Some examples of performance metrics to capture our engagement with our partners include, number of meetings and investigations done collaboratively with other partners.

The Bureau also has an immediate outcome on maintaining/increasing competition in the marketplace through its enforcement work, particularly through merger reviews. The Bureau will seek to prevent, dissolve, or alter proposed merger requests that are likely to lessen or prevent competition. We will measure this based on merger reviews results.

Intermediate Outcomes

In the medium term, the Bureau's impacts are largely seen through behavioural change. The Bureau's work and outreach will lead to an increase in stakeholder awareness and understanding of the Bureau's mandate, which will result in stakeholders considering competition, innovation and compliance with the Act in their decision making. The Bureau's work is targeted towards three stakeholder groups where we target a change in behaviour.  Every three to five years, the Bureau will survey policy makers and regulators, consumers, and businesses to measure their behavioural change. The intention is to identify quantitatively if policy makers have taken competition implications into account when they are creating policies and regulations; businesses have increased or maintained their compliance with Canada's competition laws; and, to assess if consumers have made informed choices when participating in the economy based on the Bureau's information.

Policy Makers and Regulators:
When policy makers and regulators understand the Bureau's mandate and the implications of pro-competitive policy making, they can enact legislation and policies that promote/support competition and innovation in the marketplace and not hinder it. The Bureau will be surveying policy makers and regulators to measure if the Bureau's work has influenced their decision-making behaviour.
Businesses:
When businesses are aware and understand how to comply with the Act, they make decisions such as instilling corporate compliance programs. Businesses can also report anti-competitive practices occurring and ensure that products and services are innovative with competitive prices. The Bureau will be surveying businesses to measure if the Bureau's work has influenced businesses to comply with theAct and make pro-competitive decisions.
Consumers:
When consumers have accurate and timely information available, they can make informed purchasing decisions and recognize, reject, and report anti-competitive practices and deceptive marketing conduct. The Bureau will be surveying consumers to measure if the Bureau's work has influenced their decision-making behaviour.

The Bureau engages with its partners who can share analysis and insight on competition issues and trends. Enforcement partners provide intelligence and law enforcement support that are essential to the Bureau's domestic work and cooperation with international counterparts.  The Bureau also engages with think tanks, associations, and academic partners to share research and information that could help the Bureau understand the competition landscape through a different perspective. The Bureau will be measuring its intermediate impact on partners through focus groups and in-depth interviews. The intention is to gather feedback and observations from competition law partners on the Bureau's successes and areas for improvement.

Lastly, by maintaining/increasing competition in the marketplace, new entrants are able to join the market, resulting in a marketplace that runs effectively and is driven by competition and innovation. To measure the impact of its merger-related enforcement cases, the Bureau will develop an ex-post assessment on the effectiveness of a remedy that was enforced on a merger review two to three years following the review.

Ultimate Outcomes

The ultimate outcome is a culmination of our inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes. All the work we do is in support of Canadian businesses and consumers prospering in a competitive and innovative marketplace. In the long-term, we believe our actions will lead to a healthy and innovative marketplace that will ensure that businesses' and consumers can prosper and receive the most benefits when participating in the economy. The Bureau strives to make Canada a leader in competition advocacy and compliance, and contributes to the government priority of Canada being an ideal place for investment and growth.