May 10, 2026

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:

• The Competition Bureau challenges an important behind-the-scenes merger in Canada’s oil and gas sector
• CAMP calls on the Competition Bureau to block Loblaws-affiliated Choice Properties acquisition of First Capital
• Social Capital Partners show it will take more than banks to unlock capital for Canadian businesses

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Now let’s dive in.

Concentration in Condensation

This week, the Competition Bureau filed its review of a proposed merger between two of the largest players in the market for natural gas refinement in Fort Saskatchewan, just outside of Edmonton, Alberta. Three players, Keyera, Plains, and Pembina, control 80-90% of production at the Hub, and Keyera has its sights on the assets of Plains. While it’s not a market most Canadians think about daily, it’s a market where competition is important not just for players within the industry but for consumers downstream as well.

The operations of these companies are large, capital-intensive, and vertically integrated. The Bureau’s review focuses on two parts of the process: fractionation, the separating of natural gas liquids into different products, including condensate, a critical input for the broader oil sands, and cavern storage. Geography matters: the market is defined where infrastructure exists and who hooks into it. The Bureau’s analysis suggests a merger between Keyera and Plains would result in an effective monopoly for producers who are not connected or compatible with the remaining competitor at the Hub.

This merger challenge is a test of Canada’s reformed competition laws which take a much harsher view of increases in market concentration. Before reforms, Canada’s laws allowed for mergers to literal monopoly. Reforms changed that, and we’re keen to see the Bureau attempt to stop this kind of extreme concentration. This kind of control could allow the merged entity to set terms for producers, raise prices for buyers, and exercise long term control over a critical piece of Canada’s petroleum infrastructure. While not a market likely to make headlines, this challenge will be an early signal of whether Canada’s new competition laws are up to the task.

📰 CAMP in the News 📰

• Osborne and Bednar, Surveillance Pricing is Everybody’s Problem (iPolitics)
• Bester, Cutting red tape won’t defeat Canada’s monopolies. Here’s what will. (Corporate Knights)
• Chin, What 2 big energy mergers reveal about Canada’s oilsands future (The Hub)

Location, Location, Location

When we think about competition in grocery, we often think about comparing the price and variety of different products across stores. But that kind of competition is determined by what stores are close enough for you even to consider visiting, and that is determined by competition in commercial real estate. This week, in the Globe and Mail, CAMP fellow Rachel Wasserman and CAMP executive director Keldon Bester lay out how a proposed commercial real estate acquisition could give Loblaws the upper hand in this important market.

First Capital, a real estate investment trust or REIT, is in trouble and looking to sell off its portfolio of commercial real estate. The buyers coming to save the day are Choice Properties and KingSett Capital, offering a combined $9.4 billion for a mix of high street retail and grocery stores and shopping centers. Choice Properties, primarily interested in the larger format assets, is majority owned and controlled by the Weston family, the owners of Loblaws. Already a major player in commercial real estate, this transaction would further cement Loblaws’ control over an important dimension of grocery competition in Canada.

We’re becoming a bit of a broken record on grocery real estate. But unlike the property controls that we recently covered, this transaction is an extension of control via acquisition rather than contract. The deal would see at least 50 leases from Loblaws competitors transfer to Choice, bringing them within the broader Weston umbrella. At a time when Canadians want more variety in grocery stores, this deal would further tip the scales towards an already dominant incumbent. The Competition Bureau has correctly noted that we need more competition in grocery. Stepping in to challenge this transaction would be an important signal that they mean what they say.

📚 What We’re Reading 📚

• Geist, The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 267: Peter Nowak on Rogers, the Shaw Merger Aftermath, and the Limits of Canadian Telecom Policy, (Law Bytes)
• ​Governance is the Foundation of Digital Sovereignty (Canadian Shield Institute)
• Cooper, This Is the Biggest Culprit for High Health Care Spending (New York Times)

When You Can’t Bank on the Banks

Canada is doing some economic soul-searching these days. We want to diversify trade and stimulate competition, but each year fewer businesses are created and productivity growth continues to stall. Just when we need new businesses, private equity firms flush with cash are rolling up fragmented markets, taking advantage of a succession crisis rippling across Canadian small businesses. A new report out from Social Capital Partners this week explains one important driver of this cycle: Canada’s banks are not set up to serve the businesses, both small and large, that Canada needs to be growing.

The figures are stark. Small and medium-sized businesses represent only 11.5% of outstanding loans, a quarter of the 44% OECD average. The problem is that our banks effectively have the same playbook: either big, safe bets with large enterprises and profitable mortgage products for the rest of us. A core function of a bank is to allocate capital to start and grow businesses, produce new things, and create value for Canadians. They can’t do that when they’re constantly looking over each other’s shoulder. Our financial sector regulator is starting to recognize this and is now piloting an approach that would bring different kinds of banks into the market.

But the folks at Social Capital Partners point out that more banks alone are not enough to get the job done. If Canada wants growth to be widely available, it needs to increase and diversify access to capital. Some enterprises have priorities that will never make sense to a bank. Non-profits, cooperatives, and purpose-driven organizations are structurally excluded from accessing capital. With Canada’s highly educated workforce, these non-typical enterprises could deliver real value to the economy, but only when new doors to capital are open for them. Diversifying access to capital, inside and outside the banking sector, is a key ingredient in the push to diversify our economy.

If you have any monopoly tips or stories you’d like to share, drop us a line at hello@antimonopoly.ca

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