Opening statement to the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology: Protecting and promoting competition in Canada

Remarks by Matthew Boswell, Commissioner of Competition

Meeting of the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Industry and Technology

September 17, 2025

Ottawa, Ontario

Good evening Mr. Chair and members of the Committee.

Thank you for the invitation to appear before you today. It’s good to be back before your committee, albeit with many new faces.

I am Matthew Boswell, and I am the Commissioner of Competition. I am joined today by Jeanne Pratt, Senior Deputy Commissioner of the Mergers and Monopolistic Practices Branch; and Anthony Durocher, Deputy Commissioner of the Competition Promotion Branch.

I would like to provide a quick overview of the Competition Bureau’s role, and some of our recent work.

The Bureau is an independent law enforcement agency that protects and promotes competition for the benefit of Canadian consumers and businesses.

We administer and enforce Canada's Competition Act, a law of general application that applies to every sector of the economy, as well as three labelling statutes.

Our enforcement involves investigating and addressing abuses of market power, anti-competitive mergers, price-fixing, bid-rigging and deceptive marketing practices. We also advocate to all levels of government in Canada for pro-competitive government rules and regulations.

Competition is vital to our economy. More competition means lower costs and greater opportunity for Canadians. It drives productivity, catalyzes business investment, and helps ease cost-of-living pressures.

Over the past three years, Parliament passed three waves of amendments to the Competition Act.

These generational changes have strengthened the legislative framework to protect and promote competition in Canada. Notably, they have strengthened the Bureau’s investigative and enforcement powers, modernized merger review, and created new tools to address emerging forms of market abuse that harm consumers and the economy.

The Bureau is committed to using all available tools to prevent, identify, and address anti-competitive activity, with a focus on sectors of the economy that matter to Canadians. In the past year, this includes:

• Taking legal action against Rogers for allegedly misleading claims about unlimited data.
• Taking legal action against DoorDash for allegedly advertising misleading prices.
• Taking legal action against Canada’s Wonderland for allegedly advertising misleading prices online.
• Taking legal action against Google for allegedly abusing its dominance in online advertising technology services in Canada.
• Pursuing investigations into the use of property controls in the Canadian grocery industry, including monitoring Loblaw’s recent commitment towards eliminating property controls in Canada.
• In June 2025, the Bureau published a market study report on airline competition, outlining how changes to policies such as foreign investment restrictions and airline merger oversight could deliver more competition, innovation and choice to Canadians. Just two weeks ago, we launched a new market study of competition in the lending sector for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Canada.
• We have also continued to engage in public consultations and release new guidance and updated enforcement guidelines to help businesses ensure compliance with the Competition Act following the recent amendments.

The Competition Act is a foundational tool to protect and promote greater competition in Canada, but it is not the only tool.

To build on the progress made in modernizing the Competition Act, all levels of government in Canada need to examine what more can be done to address the regulations and policies that, often unintentionally, hold back competition in Canada.

Findings we published after an in-depth study show that Canada’s competitive intensity has decreased over the last two decades. It will take a whole-of-government approach to turn the tide, with the federal government working alongside municipal, provincial, and territorial governments.

In closing, Mr. Chair, I’d like to take this opportunity to note that we are at a critical moment for Canada’s economy. We are facing global uncertainty, rising protectionism, technological disruption, and growing affordability concerns.

Competition is not a secondary issue in this context, but a foundational one. When firms and businesses face real competition, they are forced to innovate, invest, and improve.

Before fielding your questions, I would note that the law requires the Bureau to conduct its investigations in private and keep the information we have confidential. This obligation may prevent us from discussing certain facets of our investigations.

Thank you.