Dan Ciuriak – Supply Chains are No Place for Politics

From: Dan Ciuriak To: Canadian supply chain watchers Date: June 19, 2023 Re: Supply Chains are No Place for Politics The geographical organization of global supply chains has been roiled by several unrelated shocks: the black swan event of a pandemic that sent a rolling shock wave through the global economy, arbitrarily disrupting supply chains in a sequence no […]

Pecman, Do and Mangaly – Unnecessary and Costly EU Style Regulations Would Not Serve Canada Well

From: John Pecman, Huy Do and Peter Mangaly To: Canadians Concerned about Competition Date: June 15, 2023 Re: Unnecessary and Costly EU Style Regulations Would Not Serve Canada Well In response to the federal government’s consultation and discussion paper on the Future of Competition Policy in Canada, we raised concerns about moving away from identifying anti-competitive conduct through evidence-based […]

Ian Irvine – Les restrictions de vapotage signalent des marchés turbulents au Québec

De: Ian Irvine À: Canadiens préoccupés par le vapotage Date: 7 juin 2023 Concernant: Les restrictions de vapotage signalent des marchés turbulents au Québec Les systèmes de santé québécois et britannique ont récemment adopté des positions opposées sur le rôle des produits à base de nicotine à moindre nocivité. Le mois dernier, Québec a annoncé son intention d’interdire la vente de […]

The Housing Pain Meter

A widely-cited 2018 C.D. Howe Institute study of major Canadian Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) for the 2007–16 period found that the barriers to constructing new single-detached homes – including government regulations and other market dysfunctions – added upwards of $644,000 in Vancouver, for example. This Graphic Intelligence compares those figures with similar data for the period from […]

Buyers Beware: The Cost of Barriers to Building Housing in Canadian Cities

Provincial and municipal governments should cut excessive regulations on new housing development projects and lower the upfront costs on homebuyers to help Canadians grapple with skyrocketing housing prices.  The author estimates the gap between the marginal cost of construction for new housing and the market price in major Canadian city areas. This gap shows the […]

Brian Lewis – Make Mine a Double:  Ontario’s Housing Supply Targets

From: Brian Lewis To: Ontario housing observers Date: May 3, 2023 Re: Make Mine a Double:  Ontario’s Housing Supply Targets The Ontario government has embraced a goal of 1.5 million new homes being added by 2031. This is incredibly ambitious, requiring housing completions of roughly double their current levels over the next 10 years. Such a significant and […]

Marcel Boyer – Integrating Labour Markets into Competition Policy

    To: The Hon. Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry From: Marcel Boyer Date: April 14, 2023 Re: Integrating labour markets into competition policy The federal government’s consultation paper on the Competition Act asked “whether amendments to the Act could give labour a more central role in competition analyses.” It is natural for […]

Paul A. Johnson – Canada Should Not Restrict Competition with Bright Line Rules

To: Competition Policy Watchers From: Paul A. Johnson Date: April 13, 2023 Re: Canada Should Not Restrict Competition with Bright Line Rules The federal government is currently re-examining Canada’s Competition Act. Such re-examination is natural and useful – especially given the paucity of Canadian competition jurisprudence, which can give a single decided case outsized significance […]

Leonard Waverman – Let’s Rescue Bill C-11 From Itself

From:  Leonard Waverman To: Canadian Internet Watchers Date: April 10, 2023 Re: Let’s Rescue Bill C-11 From Itself On March 8, following one of the longest evolutions of a bill in Canadian history, the House of Commons approved Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act. The bill imposes obligations on online streaming services and social media platforms such as […]

Benjamin Dachis – Canada’s Competition Policy Review

From: Benjamin Dachis To: The Hon. Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Date: March 30, 2023 Re: Canada’s Competition Policy Review Minister, you have travelled the world seeking investment into Canada. Now it is time to think about how our competition policy framework influences the decision of companies to invest in Canada. Would they have certainty on […]

Competition Act Reforms Must Be Evidence-Based and Homegrown – Only the Start of the Conversation: C.D. Howe Institute Competition Policy Council

March 30, 2023 – Reforms to Canada’s Competition Act must be evidence-based and homegrown, and are only the start of the conversation on promoting Canada’s competitiveness, according to a new Communiqué from the C.D. Howe Institute Competition Policy Council.

Released in response to the federal government’s discussion paper on reforms to the Competition Act, the Council’s 24th Communiqué emphasizes the need for caution before departing from established Canadian law and process – urging the government to rely on evidence demonstrating the need for change, instead of mimicking developments in competition law and policy in foreign jurisdictions that are still untested.

Referencing how the EU Digital…

Reforms to the Competition Act Must Be Evidence-Based and Homegrown, But They Are Only a Start to Promoting Competitiveness

A version of the Competition Policy Council’s recommendations was submitted to the Government of Canada’s consultation on the future of competition policy in Canada.   On November 17, 2022, the federal government launched a long-awaited public consultation on the future of competition policy in Canada. As part of the consultation, the government released a discussion […]

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