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This year’s Africa Energy Forum presents a unique opportunity for African collaboration
In the rural village of Gwanda, Zimbabwe, a mother walks several kilometres each day to find firewood so she can cook for her children.
Canada | Publication | June 6, 2025
The Competition Bureau recently released its annual plan for 2025-26, outlining its priorities at a time when Canada is navigating rapid shifts in trade, market dynamics, and technology.
The Bureau’s priorities build on its work over the past couple of years as the Bureau continues to implement its Strategic Vision and respond to the substantial Competition Act amendments made since 2022. The Bureau also wants to leverage Canada’s presidency of the G7 to spearhead international efforts to advance competition and enforcement policy.
Many of the Bureau’s 2025-26 priorities remain the same as those of 2024-25, but with some notable additions that largely align with the priorities of the new federal government.
Below are highlights from the Bureau’s 2025-26 priorities:
While the Bureau’s annual plan lists many of the same priorities and actions as in prior years, it is sending a clear signal that it intends to be a more aggressive, proactive enforcer than has been previously the case.
Buoyed by recent enforcer-friendly changes to the Competition Act and a boost in funding for the Bureau, Commissioner Boswell has clearly indicated we have entered into a “new era of competition enforcement in Canada.”
Companies doing business in Canada should anticipate that the Bureau is looking for opportunities to flex its enforcement muscles. This means they need to ensure they understand the impact of recent Competition Act changes on their operations and proactively assess whether they need to change any of their current business practices or compliance policies. Additionally, companies contemplating transactions (both in industries the Bureau is focussing on and more generally) will want to assess the potential competition law risk at an earlier stage in the strategic process, to account for the impact of last year’s changes to the Competition Act merger review provisions, which have impacted the complexity and length of merger reviews.
The authors would like to thank Thomas Broccolini, summer student, for his contribution to preparing this legal update.
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In the rural village of Gwanda, Zimbabwe, a mother walks several kilometres each day to find firewood so she can cook for her children.
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Southern Africa is a key focus of attention at the present time, as it faces a perfect storm of an energy emergency due to hydropower generation being severely impacted by reduced water levels due to droughts whilst the demand of its regional miners for clean baseload power rapidly accelerates.
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