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ARCHIVED - Brief Case Studies of Exemplary Practices
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Industry Canada Competition Bureau (Mergers)
The Competition Bureau's fundamental goal is to serve the Canadian Public by ensuring that the proper amount of competition is maintained in various sectors of the Canadian economy. In fulfilling its mandate the Bureau provides Advance Ruling Certificates to businesses on the acceptability of proposed mergers. It also approves mergers after receipt of notification from the business that such a merger is about to take place. It charges $25,000 each time it provides either of these services.
Its main client group (other than the Canadian Public at large) is Canadian Businesses who wish to have proposed mergers approved. In the fiscal year 2000-2001 the Competition Bureau dealt with 349 transactions (applications for Advance Ruling Certificates and merger approval). Of these, 282 (81%) were non-complex, 53 (15%) were complex, and 14 (4%) were very complex.
It provides services in person, by phone, Fax, mail, and e-mail.
Service Standards in Use
When, in November 1997, the Minister of Industry approved fees for Competition Bureau regulatory process, these fees were accompanied by service standards. These standards had been produced from a review of historical data on processing times and were revised after consultation with various external stakeholders. For merger review (Advance Ruling Certificates and merger approvals), the standards were as follows.
| Complexity | Maximum Turnaround Times |
| Non-Complex | 14 days |
| Complex | 10 weeks |
| Very complex | 5 months |
These standards are published widely. They are on the departmental website, and in the Fee and Service Standards Website.
The Competition Bureau has a time reporting and tracking system, which it uses to compile statistics on turnaround times. These statistics are published in annual Merger Review Performance Reports.
In addition to direct statistical data, the Competition Bureau distributes feedback leaflets to clients who have used the services, asking if the service was performed within specified times and asking clients to evaluate the quality of service (Excellent, Good, Fair, or Poor)
Every two years (1999 and 2001) the Bureau meets with representatives of its clients, reports on how it is achieving its service standards and receives feedback from its clients.
Feedback from these consultations is used to re-examine the service and service standards. In particular, work is ongoing to revise the process used to initially classify reviews as non-complex, complex or very complex.
Exemplary Practices
The Competition Bureau had detailed consultations with its clients about the setting of standards. It provided the clients with historical statistical information and made changes to the standards in response to client suggestions.
The Bureau publishes more than just the percentage of reviews that are performed within the standard. It supplies (graphical) information on the distribution of the times actually taken. This is very valuable, because it identifies cases where the standard is significantly exceed and where the actual completion time is very short.
The Bureau collects information both on the actual service provided and on the clients' perceptions of the service. This avoids the situation where the organization believes the situation is acceptable because standards are being achieved, while clients are actually unhappy because their needs and expectations are not being met.
The periodic meetings with client representatives allows for proper feedback.
Lessons Learned
While clients have been quite satisfied with the present service standards and degree to which they have been satisfied. It was discovered that the process of initially categorizing reviews by complexity was not always accurate. This meant that sometimes, a review would have to be re-classified into a higher complexity level. This caused problems with the clients, not so much because the revised time was unacceptable, but because plans had already been made on the basis of the shorter review time and had to be revised. The Bureau is currently in the process of revising its classification process. It has been learned that increasing the time and effort in classification procedures to ensure that re-classifications are less frequent actually improves satisfaction.
Contact
Lise Davey
Manager, Client Services
Industry Canada
Competition Bureau Client Services
50 Victoria Street
Hull, Quebec
K1A OC9
Telephone: (819) 953-9069
