"50 Years on: The Influence of the Economic Council of Canada's Interim Report on Competition Policy"

Abstract

2019 marks the 50-year anniversary of the release of the Economic Council of Canada's Interim Report on Competition Policy in 1969. The transformation of Canadian competition legislation since 1969 can be directly traced to recommendations in the Economic Council's Report. This article focuses on two of those recommendations: to move those matters requiring a detailed economic assessment to adjudication by an expert civil tribunal (and away from the criminal courts), and to focus on economic efficiency as the legislation's main objective. This vision for change has largely been implemented. The Report marked a watershed for Canadian competition policy-an important turning point which began the process of moving the law from being in many respects ineffective, to occupying a leading place among modern competition law regimes.