The efficiencies defences now no longer exist. When Bill C-56 became law, the efficiency defence was no longer there. It was repealed.
One problem—there are quite a few—with the efficiencies defence was that it allowed harmful mergers. Those were mergers for which we could prove that the merger was going to lessen competition, prices were going to go up and it would be harmful to consumers and the economy, but that defence, the way the jurisprudence evolved, would go through. Canada was very much an anomaly in terms of how we looked at it.
Going forward, there is certainly scope for mergers that can be pro-competitive, such as when two companies are bringing their resources together. That actually can be good for consumers because it can stimulate competition.
Every case is different as to the net effect and how they're going to use resources and how they can argue that it is actually good for competition and pro-competitive, but since the passage of Bill C-56, it is a new day for how efficiencies are viewed.