Bill C-339

An Act to amend the Competition Act (efficiencies defence)

Sponsor

Ryan Williams Conservative

Introduced as a private member’s bill. (These don’t often become law.)

Status

Dead, as of Nov. 7, 2023

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Summary

This is from the published bill.

This enactment amends the Competition Act to repeal the provision of the Act setting out the “efficiencies defence”, which prevents the Competition Tribunal from making an order against any party to a merger or proposed merger if the Tribunal finds that the merger or proposed merger has brought about or is likely to bring about gains in efficiency that will be greater than the effects of any prevention or lessening of competition that will result or is likely to result from the merger or proposed merger.

Elsewhere

All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.

Bill numbers are reused for different bills each new session. Perhaps you were looking for one of these other C-339s:

C-339 (2017) An Act to amend the Canadian Forces Members and Veterans Re-establishment and Compensation Act (death benefit)

C-339 (2013) Condemnation of Russian Corruption Act

C-339 (2011) Condemnation of Russian Corruption Act

C-339 (2010) An Act to amend the Employment Insurance Act (maximum - special benefits)

Competition ActRoutine Proceedings

June 8th, 2023 / 10:05 a.m.

Conservative

Ryan Williams Conservative Bay of Quinte, ON

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-339, An Act to amend the Competition Act (efficiencies defence).

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to rise to present my first private member's bill.

Competition is a myth in Canada. Canadians pay some of the highest prices in the world for a lot of different monopolies that dominate Canadian marketplaces: cellphones and Internet, banking, airlines and even beer. What a travesty that is. Why? The culprits are many, but a lacklustre and surprisingly pro-monopolistic Competition Act is among the biggest reasons.

My private member's bill would eliminate the most glaring anti-competition section of the act, section 96, the efficiencies defence. Canada is the only G7 nation to include the efficiencies defence in its competition laws, and it currently allows an outdated Competition Act to fulfill its most glaring anti-competitive mandate to allow companies to merge, no matter how bad the merger may be for competition, if they can find efficiencies. Most of the time, those efficiencies are as simple as job losses.

This was created at a time when Canada embraced an industrial policy in the 1960s. It was not at a time with free trade but when we wanted companies to get as big as possible to compete internationally. It is a relic of the old. This deletion will not alone fix competition, but it will go a long way to start.

I am happy to bring this bill and the debate on competition to the floor of the House of Commons, and I want to thank the member for Abbotsford for seconding it.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)