The Competition Bureau reports its own merger-review volume, outcomes and turnaround time twice a year — and the fiscal 2025–26 figures show a market where almost every review clears with no enforcement action.
Headline figure
243
Merger reviews commenced at the Competition Bureau in fiscal 2025–26, per its own Performance Measurement & Statistics Report: 241 concluded over the same year, of which 237 closed with no enforcement action and only 4 concluded with issues raised under the Act.
What the data says
The Bureau's report gives two ways to total concluded reviews for the year, and they do not quite agree: the outcome-based table puts concluded reviews at 241 (237 no-action plus 4 with-issues), while the complexity-based table puts the combined non-complex and complex total at 236 (129 non-complex plus 107 complex), per the same report. That five-file gap is the Bureau's own tables disagreeing with each other, not a transcription error here — it likely reflects reviews concluded before a formal complexity classification was finalised. Quote the specific table you are using rather than blending the two.
Notification is only mandatory above statutory thresholds under Competition Act s. 110 — broadly, party assets or revenue in Canada exceeding $400 million, plus a much lower transaction-size threshold that is adjusted annually against nominal GDP and published in the Canada Gazette. Most PE-scale buyouts of a Canadian small or mid-sized business never approach these thresholds and simply do not notify.
Two tests must both be met before a deal is even in scope. The party-size test, s. 109(1), requires the parties and their affiliates to have assets in Canada, or gross revenues from sales in, from or into Canada, exceeding $400 million in aggregate. The share-acquisition test, s. 110(3)(b), only trips once the acquirer would hold more than 20% of a publicly traded target’s voting shares, 35% of a privately held one, or 50% if already above either threshold. Most PE buyouts of a Canadian small or mid-sized business clear neither test and never file. One correction worth flagging against the 4 “issues raised” outcomes in this report: the efficiencies defence, Competition Act s. 96, was repealed in 2023 — its entire text now reads “[Repealed, 2023, c. 31, s. 10]” — so no outcome in this or any future report can involve it, despite it still circulating in older commentary.
For the parallel federal review that applies to a foreign buyer, see Investment Canada Act filings and reviews. For how these clocks add up on a real closing timeline, see how long a Canadian business takes to sell.
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