Competition Policy

Canada has a reasonably sound regime to promote healthy competition, but it must be continuously adapted to the changing realities of the global marketplace. Mergers and joint ventures must be judged on their ability to enable Canadian firms to be more nimble competitors on the global stage, and not by applying an excessively rigid definition of competition within the domestic market.

• Important areas of the Canadian economy, such as communications and airlines, should be opened to greater degrees of foreign competition.
• The competition policy regime has the potential to replace countervail as the means to deal with dumping and promote healthy competition across borders.
• In particular, Canadian competition law and practice must keep abreast of developments in our most important market, the United States, while avoiding the litigious excesses of the American system.