Canadian Prosperity Act

Bill S-239, called the Canadian Prosperity Act, makes a targeted change to the Competition Act. It gives the Commissioner of Competition new power, when publishing a report on a market or industry inquiry, to recommend action to a federal or provincial government body about specific internal trade barriers within Canada—such as a law, regulation, rule, order or by-law—that the Commissioner believes is unfairly limiting competition in that market or a related one.

When such a recommendation is directed at a federal department, agency, or Crown corporation, the head of that institution is legally required to respond within 120 days of the report's publication, and the Commissioner must post that response on a public website. Provincial and municipal institutions (departments, municipalities, and provincial Crown corporations) are not required to respond, but if the head of such an institution chooses to do so within 120 days, the Commissioner must also publish that response online; if no response comes in, the Commissioner must post a notice saying so.

The bill defines clearly which bodies count as "federal" or "provincial" institutions for this purpose, and specifically excludes territorial governments and Indigenous band governments from these rules. Overall, the bill does not remove any actual trade barriers itself—it creates a formal mechanism for identifying them through Competition Bureau inquiries and pressuring governments to respond publicly.

This bill amends the Competition Act to let the Commissioner of Competition include recommendations about internal trade barriers in market or industry inquiry reports, and to require or invite responses from the federal or provincial bodies those recommendations target.

• Who holds the power — the Commissioner of Competition may, within a market or industry inquiry report, recommend to a named federal or provincial institution that a specific law, regulation, rule, order or by-law be addressed as a barrier to internal trade unduly affecting competition.
• Discretion — the decision to make a recommendation, and the judgment that a barrier "unduly affects" competition, rests entirely with the Commissioner's opinion; no criteria or threshold is defined in the text.
• Obligation on federal bodies — the head of a federal institution named in a recommendation must respond within 120 days of the report's publication; the Commissioner must publish that response on a public website.
• Non-obligation on provincial bodies — the head of a provincial institution "may" respond within the same 120-day window; if no response arrives, the Commissioner must publish a notice of that fact instead.
• No penalty specified — the bill sets no consequence, fine, or enforcement mechanism if a federal institution fails to respond within 120 days.
• Scope of institutions covered — the definitions extend to federal and provincial departments, agencies, Crown corporations and municipalities, but explicitly exclude territorial governments and Indigenous band governments.