Canada’s Commissioner of the Competition has appointed an advisory panel to help assess the role that efficiencies should play in the context of Canada’s economy in the 21st century.

The Advisory Panel on Efficiencies will consider the general economic and business implications of the current treatment of efficiencies under the Competition Act. It will also comment on the characteristics that Canada’s competition policy framework should have, in order to ensure that efficiencies are properly addressed.

The panel will consider the treatment of efficiencies in other jurisdictions and review the results of national consultations on efficiencies initiated by the Competition Bureau in September 2004. In particular, the panel will consider the arguments which link the need for Canada’s approach to efficiencies in merger review, to the nature of the Canadian economy. The panel’s report will be published in June.

Marcel Côté, a founding partner of SECOR Consulting, will chair the panel. He’ll be joined by Jalynn Bennett, president of Jalynn H. Bennett and Associates Ltd., former VP corporate development at Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. and current director for CIBC, Sears Canada Inc., and The Cadillac Fairview Corp. Ltd.; Janet Bolton, senior associate at Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, she worked on Bank of Montreal’s proposed merger with Royal Bank; and Roger Gibbins, president and CEO of the Canada West Foundation.