Vote Yes
An Act to amend the Competition Act
This bill amends the Competition Act to let the Commissioner of Competition include recommendations in market or industry inquiry reports to federal or provincial institutions about internal trade barriers that unduly harm competition. Federal institutions must respond within 120 days, and the Commissioner must publish those responses. Provincial institutions may respond within 120 days, with the Commissioner publishing any response or a notice of non-response. The aim is to boost transparency and pressure institutions to reduce interprovincial barriers, strengthen competition, and enhance prosperity.
This bill aligns with prosperity, red-tape reduction, and productivity by empowering the Competition Bureau to identify harmful internal trade barriers and forcing timely, public federal responses. Impact depends on provincial cooperation, but transparency can catalyze barrier removal without heavy bureaucracy.
Why does the bill make provincial responses optional when most internal trade barriers are provincial, and will the government strengthen accountability so Canadians can see who is blocking internal free trade?
What resources and timelines will the government provide to the Competition Bureau to ensure market inquiries and the publication of responses occur quickly and produce measurable reductions in barriers?
What criteria will define when a barrier ‘unduly affects’ competition, and how will the bill ensure legitimate health and safety protections remain intact while eliminating protectionist or duplicative rules?
Targeting and exposing internal trade barriers can lower costs, expand market access within Canada, and improve consumer welfare—key drivers of broad-based prosperity.
It shines a light on protectionist or duplicative rules and creates a timeline for federal responses, encouraging the removal of red tape without adding heavy new processes.
Reducing interprovincial frictions increases scale, competition, and resource mobility, supporting productivity and competitiveness.
Improved internal efficiency can indirectly aid exports, but the bill does not directly address export markets or trade policy.
Clearer, less fragmented internal markets improve returns to investment and innovation by enlarging customer bases and reducing compliance costs.
A modest new response requirement is offset by potential efficiency gains from removing duplicative regulations; net impact depends on compliance and follow-through.
No tax changes are proposed.
Internal trade barrier reduction can deliver large economy-wide gains, though the bill’s non-binding provincial element may limit the scale of realized impact.
Did we get the builder vote wrong?
Email hi@buildcanada.com