Canada Needs a Commissioner Who Fights Monopolies

Canadians are paying the price of monopoly every day through higher costs and fewer choices. We see it in high internet bills and poor service, devices built for discard instead of repair, online marketplaces squeezing small businesses and consumers, and monopolies forcing workers into insecure gig work.

Competition is what keeps our economy fair, affordable, and growing. That is why we need a Commissioner of Competition who is ready to challenge corporate power head on. In the coming weeks, Canada will choose a new Commissioner who will either push back hard against monopolies, or undo the progress that has barely started.

This decision will shape our economy for years to come. Sign this petition before November 28 (Friday) to show that Canadians want a Commissioner who will stand up for consumers, workers, and entrepreneurs!

To: Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions

Canada is facing a competition crisis. Everyday Canadians feel it through high living costs, with telecom companies charging some of the highest prices in the world. Products are built to fail, and too many markets are dominated by a few players who raise prices, stifle innovation, push workers into insecure gig jobs, and block better choices from reaching Canadians.

Strong competition policy is essential for everyday affordability and for Canada’s economic sovereignty.1 We need a Commissioner who will stand up to both foreign and domestic monopolies in defense of consumers, workers, and businesses—a leader with a clear, public vision for using competition law to stop harmful mergers and abuses of dominance.

We urge you to appoint a Commissioner who will fight for ordinary Canadians and stop monopolies from consolidating entire industries, abusing their customers, and bending the rules of the economy in their favour.

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How big is Canada’s Competition problem?

Huge! Over the past two decades, more and more Canadian industries have been taken over by just a few powerful companies;2 and it’s hitting people in almost every part of daily life. Whether it’s our sky-high internet bills,3 grocery chains that seem to keep prices locked in, or tech giants that dominate everything online, a handful of big players have way too much control.

In Halifax, for example, federal investigators found that big grocers like Sobeys and Loblaw use “property controls” that basically stop competitors from opening nearby.4 That means fewer choices and higher prices for everyone.

We’ve seen this happen in Manitoba before,5 but the problem goes far beyond groceries. Gas stations are using pricing algorithms that drive prices up across entire regions,6 and real estate commission rules are making buying a home even more expensive.7

The list goes on and on, and Canada’s competition issue reaches into airlines, the banking, insurance, healthcare sectors and more.8 These everyday costs hit people hard — and all Canadians are paying for it, one way or another, every single day.

How will a strong Competition Commissioner help? 

Securing the appointment of a strong, pro-consumer Competition Commissioner will decide whether Canada’s strong competition laws passed in 2023 are actually used to challenge and break up our huge entrenched monopolies, or if those monopolies keep calling the shots.9

A Commissioner who is committed to fighting monopolies can direct his bureau to perform market studies that quantitatively demonstrate how they are driving up prices and crushing competition in our country. An industry-friendly Commissioner can instruct our Competition Bureau to sit on their hands and let current market dynamics decide Canada’s future.

The lack of Bureau intervention against monopolies has created the economy we see today and fueled Canada’s competition crisis, where mergers are rarely blocked and disastrous mega-mergers like Rogers-Shaw go through unchecked, hurting consumers with higher costs and fewer choices.10

Why do we need to speak up now?

Current Competition Commissioner Matthew Boswell’s term runs out at the end of 2025, which means our government is deciding whether to appoint a consumer champion who will fight for fair prices and practices in competitive markets across Canada, or an industry shill who will quietly fill the seat for the next five years. 

If enough of us sign the petition for a strong anti-monopoly Competition Commissioner, we can force Industry Minister Melanie Joly to make good on her promise to be “hawkish” in defence of competition and Canadian consumers!11

Sources

  1. One Canadian economy needs one competition policy – Policy Options
  2. Competition Bureau report finds Canada’s competitive intensity in decline – Competition Bureau Canada
  3. Canada’s unique affordability crisis driven by government protection of industry monopolies while consumers suffer from lack of competition – The Pointer
  4. Federal investigation probes grocery store competition in Halifax – CBC
  5. Legal practice preventing competition near existing Manitoba grocery stores might come to an end – CBC
  6. Competition Bureau advances an investigation into Kalibrate’s gas pricing services – Competition Bureau Canada
  7. Competition Bureau advances investigation into the Canadian Real Estate Association’s policies – Competition Bureau Canada
  8. Building Canada requires competition – Betakit
  9. Competition is a crucial promise in today’s economic statement – OpenMedia
  10. CCTS Report: Rogers customer complaints doubled since 2022 – OpenMedia
  11. Joly says Ottawa will be ‘hawkish’ on competition to restore affordability – BNN Bloomberg

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