The efficiencies defence is something that the Business Council of Canada urged be put into the Competition Act when it was reviewed in the nineties. It's an unfortunate appendix that we should really cut out, because we are pretty much alone in OECD countries with that kind of defence.
What it does is.... Even if we go in and prove that a four to three merger is bad, even if we go in and say the wireline control is now going to be in the hands of Bell and Telus and Rogers nationwide and that's not good for competition, if Rogers shows that they're going to, in effect, save money by combining the two, with their capital expenditures and so on, they win. It's like putting your hand on the scale. It's impossible for us to counter that unless we do quite a difficult proving exercise, and the Supreme Court made it even harder recently in a case called Tervita.
We'll try, but it is something that Parliament should re-engage with.