Ottawa will aggressively push competition between companies in a bid to ease the cost of living, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said on Wednesday as she opened the Competition Bureau’s annual summit in Ottawa. In her speech, Joly delivered an emphatic endorsement of more market competition in Canada. Joly said affordability is still top of mind for Canadians and argued expanding market competition to give consumers more choices offers a path to lower prices. The Competition Bureau acts as a watchdog for competitive dynamics in Canada and has examined concentration in the grocery and airline sectors in recent years. The previous Liberal government gave the Competition Bureau new powers to levy heftier penalties, more closely scrutinize proposed mergers and compel financial documents from the subjects of its market investigations.