December 7, 2025

Welcome to Letters from CAMP, a newsletter on anti-monopoly activity in Canada and abroad, brought to you by the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project. In this instalment we have:

• What Canadians should look for in the next Commissioner of Competition
• Another banner quarter of profits for Canada’s oligopoly banking sector
• Netflix looks to cement its stranglehold on Hollywood with Warner Bros. acquisition

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Now let’s dive in.

What Kind of Competition Commissioner Do Canadians Need?

It’s official, Commissioner of Competition Matthew Boswell will be stepping down from his post on December 17^th, to be replaced in the interim by Senior Deputy Commissioner Jeanne Pratt. This means the gears are beginning to turn in Ottawa on who will be selected as Commissioner for the next four-year term. As head of the Competition Bureau, who occupies the Commissioner chair is a key piece of the fight against monopoly. This week, in a piece for the Globe and Mail, CAMP executive director Keldon Bester lays out what Canadians should look for in the next top competition cop.

First, the next Commissioner must have a clear vision of how their role can help bring down the cost of living. Canada’s economy is littered with oligopolies that are due for a shake-up. The next Commissioner should prioritize action based on their scope and potential for competition to ease the financial strain on Canadians. Second, the next Commissioner must be ready to defend the independence of the agency amid demands that American companies get a pass from international laws. A Commissioner that brings a strong spine to both issues would be well suited to build on the positive legacy of the Boswell era.

This is not to say it will be an easy task. Whoever decides to take up the mantle will be putting themselves at the center of conflicts between domestic and foreign corporate giants and their integration with the future of Canada’s international relations. There’s nothing stopping a Commissioner from sitting on their hands and riding out their tenure peacefully, and there is a serious pull towards the path of least resistance. But a Commissioner taking this path would be condemning Canadians to the high cost and sluggishness of an oligopolized economy, something we cannot accept. Whatever the outcome of the hiring process, CAMP will be there to put the interests of Canadians first and make that path of least resistance as unappealing as possible.

📰 CAMP in the News 📰

• ​EQ Bank carves out more market share with $800-million PC Financial purchase (Betakit)
• ​What does Canada need from the next Commissioner of Competition? (Shaye Ganam)

It’s Good to Be a Bank

To put it mildly, it’s a difficult time to be a Canadian. The cost of living, from housing to groceries and other necessities, is higher than ever. At the same time, the relationship with our largest trading partner and ally has never been rockier. Recent StatsCan data showed that things aren’t as bad as we thought, but that’s cold comfort to folks scraping by to get to the end of the month. Canadians of all stripes are understandably unsure about their economic futures.

That is, unless you’re a Canadian bank. In fact, it’s a great time to be a Canadian bank. Canada’s banks are some of the most profitable on the planet, and reporting on bank quarterly earnings this week was a reminder that the good times are still rolling. From RBC to CIBC, Canada’s major banks surpassed analyst expectations for quarterly profits, with several celebrating by hiking the dividends they return to their shareholders. But those outsize profits come from somewhere, and bank profitability is ultimately a tax on the real economy where people make things and provide services to one another.

A competitive banking sector would compete away these excess profits and ensure the essential functions of banks, keeping savings safe and extending credit, occurs as efficiently as possible. The breathless reporting of bank earnings is an unfortunate staple of business journalism, where bank profits are seen as a proxy for the health of our economy instead of a tax on it. Thankfully, the era of bumper bank profits may be coming to an end. The federal government went big in the recent budget to open the banking sector to more competition in the future. While there is hope on the horizon, the most recent round of bank earnings shows us the multi-billion dollar room for improvement.

📚 What We’re Reading 📚

• Mitchell, et al. Turning Public Money Into Amazon’s Profit (ILSR)
• Fonda, The WBD Deal Puts Hollywood, and Democracy, at Risk (The Ankler)
• McClure, Age of the ‘scam state’: how an illicit, multibillion-dollar industry has taken root in south-east Asia (The Guardian)

Netflix’s Attempted Monopolization of Hollywood

After a months long auction process, this week it was announced that Netflix has put forward a $72 billion USD offer to buy Warner Bros., the storied Hollywood movie studio and streamer. As one of the five remaining major movie studios and major force in the streaming market with HBO Max, the proposed transaction is bad news for both people that enjoy movies and those that make them possible. In response to the announcement, the Globe and Mail’s arts and film editor Barry Hertz put it plainly, “moviegoing might have died Thursday night.”

U.S. antitrust expert Matt Stoller was quick to point out that the deal is plainly illegal, with Netflix using the transaction to take out a direct competitor in the streaming and production space. But when was the last time being illegal stopped a merger? While some have cheered on Netflix as an alternative buyer to Ellison-owned and Trump-adjacent Paramount, this misses the point. Rather than being bought by any competitor, Warner Bros. should remain independent to offer the competitive pressure that among other things is keeping the theatrical movie market afloat.

Despite its decline, moviegoing continues to be an important cultural fixture and one increasingly popular with younger Canadians. If we want moviegoing to remain a viable business and to arrest the steady increase in streaming prices, the merger must be stopped in its tracks. While headlines have focused on the response of American and European enforcers, Canada has a role to play. Because of the transaction’s potential impact on Canadian viewers and the army of movie production staff across the country, the Competition Bureau should absolutely scrutinize Netflix-Warner Bros..

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